Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Legislatures on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the discloser that a significant number of overseas Pakistanis were involved in begging. The revelation was made during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, which held today at parliament house while Senator Manzoor Ahmed Kakar was on chair.
Secretary of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, shared some concerning statistics on the country’s overseas population before the Senate panel. He revealed that a significant number of Pakistanis abroad are involved in begging which results in legal issues for them. He shared that 90% of beggars arrested abroad were of Pakistani origin. Additionally, he mentioned that both Iraqi and Saudi ambassadors had reported that their jails were overcrowded due to such arrests. The Secretary also noted that many pickpockets caught inside the Haram in Saudi Arabia were Pakistanis, and they often travelled on Umrah visas for begging purposes.
Senator Rana Mahmood ul Hassan raised the issue of Pakistan’s relatively low representation among skilled workers in countries like Japan. He mentioned that Japan had requested 340,000 skilled workers from various countries, but only 200 Pakistanis had been sent. This raised concerns about the under utilization of the country’s workforce in foreign job markets. He lamented that 50,000 Engineers and IT Professionals in the country were unemployed and urged the Ministry to develop a mechanism in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other related ministries to aid the Pakistani Engineers as skilled workers to Japan, China and other countries considering the prevailing dire economic crisis. He said that highly skilled qualified professionals are desperate for jobs and as of now are even willing to work for Rs15000 to Rs20000 salary per month.
