ISLAMABAD – The Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource has recommended establishing more protector offices in the country, in order meet the needs of the people.
Held under the chairmanship of Senator Baz Muhammad Khan here in parliament, the committee was given detailed account of the number of workers and statistics on revenue collection by different protector offices.
It was told that four offices are headed by directors and three by deputy directors. The meeting was also told that the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Developmentis in process of setting up a protector office in Gilgit Baltistan.
The protectorate of emigrants currently has seven offices in Pakistan; situated in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Multan and Malakand.
Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment Additional Director General Rana Matloob said that from 1971 to 2016, more than nine million Pakistanis have ensued abroad on work visas and the highest number, recorded in 2015, was 946,571.
He further said that 96 per cent of the overseas Pakistanis are working in Gulf countries, one per cent in the European Union and three per cent in other countries.
Matloob said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa makes 12 percentof Pakistan’s population but 26 per cent of people are working abroad. Similarly, 0.5-million people belonging to FATA work abroad and send a huge amount of remittances, but there are fewer training facilities for people of these areas.
The ministry was asked to increase training opportunities for people who move abroad so that they have better employment opportunities and are paid better. In reply, the official said that the ministry is planning to establish office and schools of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation in FATA and is also working along with law division to bring some amendments in the Immigration Act of 1979.
