TAXILA: Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sajid Hussain Turi on Monday said the present government was working on a comprehensive plan to export one million people to several countries, including Malta, Poland, Hungary, South Korea and Japan, during the next year.

He was talking to journalists after inaugurating residential flats for labourers and industrial workers in the Workers Complex Taxila. Minister of State Sardar Saleem Haider was also present on the occasion.

Mr Turi said Malta, Poland, Hungary, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq had shown an interest in importing Pakistani manpower and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were being signed with many of them.

He said he was tapping into new markets and had visited many countries including Romania, Azerbaijan, Portugal and Greece, who had shown an interest in importing manpower from Pakistan.

Japan was opening up 14 different sectors for Pakistan’s workers including construction, information technology, nursing, manufacturing and engineering, he said, adding that the government’s focus was also to send skilled labour to these countries.

He revealed that the agreements for export of manpower have already been signed with Germany, Malaysia and Korea, adding that during the first half of the current year over 400,000 people were sent abroad for employment.

He said about 50,000 people are going to Saudi Arabia every month for employment, adding that the government was working on allocating quota to Overseas Employment Promoters (OEPs) to increase manpower exports.

Responding to a question, Mr Turi said an estimated 3.6 million labourers were affected with devastating floods in the country and the government with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) created a strategy for their rehabilitation. He said the rehabilitation process in Balochistan has completed and in the next phase, the process would be launched in Sindh followed by South Punjab. While talking about the political scenario, he said that he does not see early general elections and polls would be held according to the schedule.

Earlier addressing participants of the inauguration ceremony, the minister said that 504 residential flats for labourers and industrial workers in Workers Complex Taxila was a dream come true for PPP.

“To facilitate workers on their doorsteps is the ideology of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and under the visionary leadership of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, we are following this ideology,” Mr Turi said, adding that the PPP never forgot the martyrs of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) Wah so 70 residential flats were allotted to their families who sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism.

He said the labour complex comprising 30 acres and over 500 multi-story flats were constructed through Nespak with an allocation of Rs1,314 million, adding that the project would accommodate 500 industrial workers of Taxila and Wah area and their families.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2022