ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to offer Pakistani nationality to foreign investors, especially to fetch heavy investments from wealthy Afghans and Chinese.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry through a late-night tweet on Friday confirmed the plan.

The government believes it will fetch billions of dollars of foreign investment by giving Pakistani nationality and proprietary rights to the foreign investors.

“In line with new National Security Policy, through which Pakistan declared geo-economics as core of its national security doctrine, the government has decided to allow permanent residency scheme for foreign nationals, new policy allows foreigners to get permanent resident status in lieu of investment,” the tweet said.

A source privy to this de­­velopment told Dawn that the government wanted to attract heavy investments from the wealthy Afghan nationals who were presently investing in countries such as Iran, Turkey and Malaysia.

They said the government also hoped that US-based Sikh nationals would be happy to make investment in different sectors in Pakistan due to their affection with Sikh religious sites in the country.

Also, Prime Minister Imran Khan in his recent statements hinted that he wanted to attract top Chi­n­ese investors who relocated their industries to other countries in the region. The government also hoped that the rich Arabs rulers, who used to visit Pakistan every year for hunting purpose, would like to have Pakistani citizenship.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2022

Follow Dawn Business on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and across the world.

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...