IN every difficult hour, Pakistan has always relied heavily on its overseas community which in fact never disappointed their countrymen. At a time when the country is faced with the worst ever crisis of its history in the form of breakout of novel Coronavirus, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a televised address, on Monday appealed the expatriates to donate generously to Corona Relief Fund to help the government in coping with the situation.
These Overseas Pakistanis have proved to be a precious asset for the country. They have always contributed to the national economy through their billions of dollars of remittances. Over the years, they have proved to be the backbone of the economy whilst being one of the major sources of valuable foreign exchange. How do the overseas Pakistanis respond to the PM call is yet to be seen but this time around, one must not pin much expectations with them as the pandemic has affected every country around the world. The closure of businesses and lockdown situation has rendered many Overseas Pakistanis jobless. Some countries are rather asking the South Asian nations to take back their workers. Indeed these are testing times for our expatriates as well and our government must do everything possible to bring back those who wanted to come back to the homeland. Then, our Prime Minister must immediately contact the leadership of friendly countries in the Gulf in order to ensure the wellbeing of the Pakistani community there as well as to seek more job quota from them once the situation returns to normalcy. Certainly, the Prime Minister whilst making the appeal for donations is eyeing the well off Pakistanis settled abroad who must definitely demonstrate open heartedness and generously contribute to the Fund – the amount of which will be used to help daily wagers and the poor families to withstand the current crisis. Apart from their donations, the Prime Minister should also push these Pakistanis to make investment especially in the construction sector which has been reopened with incentives and exemptions in taxes to keep the economy afloat. Their investment in the construction sector really can bring revolution in the country in no time and this will also help provide immense job opportunities to our people.