Daily Times

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday announced a package to facilitate overseas Pakistanis with multiple initiatives and expressed optimism that the upcoming government would continue its implementation.

The prime minister, on the occasion, said that Pakistani diaspora had been living in different parts of the world, and on the basis of their hard work, contributions and innovations, they had earned fame for the country.

Underlining the need to facilitate them without wasting time, he said such initiatives would provide overseas Pakistanis a sort of encouragement.

“They are the great ambassadors of Pakistan. An if provided with the skill development training with certifications from the global companies, the Pakistani manpower can further supplement the valuable remittances being sent to the country,” he added.

In the Gulf and Europe, the prime minister said, there was a huge market for skilled labour, adding if the models and the patterns used by certain countries to train their manpower, were adopted in Pakistan, they could equip their manpower properly to meet growing modern-day requirements across the world.

The prime minister announced the package for overseas Pakistanis which included establishment of special courts to resolve the property issues faced by the expatriates, one such was being set up in Islamabad which would be replicated in other provinces, establishment of hot lines in the offices under all the chief secretaries and the ICT chief commissioner, setting up Overseas Commission in all provinces, reservation of 10 percent quota for the overseas Pakistanis in all public sector housing projects with 5 percent rebate in case of foreign exchange payment, establishment of dedicated counters at all airports of the country, awarding top ten overseas Pakistan who contributed remittances, allocation of 5 percent seats in the professional public sector educational institutes across Pakistan, need-based scholarship to the overseas Pakistan in the pursuit of higher education, dedicated national saving schemes at attractive rates and linking of NADRA central system at the union levels for various facilities and increasing of number of camp offices for attestation of documents, online biometric verification and auto removal of blacklist passports etc. The prime minister also appreciated the minister for overseas Pakistanis, the officials of ministry and their team for taking measures to facilitate the expatriate Pakistanis.

Earlier, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Sajid Tori highlighted the achievements of his ministry.

He said that online facilities were provided to the overseas Pakistanis including redressal of their issues regarding property issues, enrollment at Overseas Pakistanis Foundation schools, housing society, passports and others.

He said that they had signed agreements with 15 countries while 12 were under the process to send manpower abroad.

The ministry had sent about 1,227,000 Pakistani nationals to different countries, thus taking the number of overseas Pakistanis to over 10 million, he added.