Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday pointing to the indifferent attitude of officers and staff at Pakistan missions abroad in resolving problems of Pakistani community, urged them to adopt the passion of serving overseas nationals whose remittances are contributing a lot in running the country.
“Overseas Pakistanis are our major strength. Pakistan is running on their remittances. If they would not have been remitting, the country would have gone towards bankruptcy,” he said while addressing Pakistan’s ambassadors and high commissioners via video-link.
The prime minister referred to his 20 years of living experience in England and said that he himself witnessed the indifferent attitude of officers and staff at Pakistan’s High Commission in London towards the labour class. During the decades of 1970s, 80s and 90, the Pakistani ambassadors used to behave like masters of the colonial days, he remarked.
He mentioned the recent complaints received at the Citizen Portal about the indifferent and callous attitude of officers and staff at Pakistan Embassy in Saudi Arabia towards the community was shocking. “It is unfortunate how we [staff and officers at the Embassy] deal with Overseas Pakistanis,” he said.
He said that this (attitude) was unacceptable. “It cannot go on in this way during the current era. The embassies were duty-bound to serve the Pakistani community,” he said, and listed the 17 services, which the embassies were duty-bound to render for the facilitation of expatriates, including attestation of education documents, marriage papers, driving license, experience certificate, power of attorney, affidavit etc.
He said that there were complaints of unnecessary delays, not adhering to time and indifferent attitude of staff in providing those services particularly in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, from where Pakistan received maximum remittances.