At times when the nation is going through economic crisis, the news regarding substantial increase in remittances from overseas Pakistanis is something to cheer about.

In a welcome development, the Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis have reached a seven-month high. According to the data released by the State Bank, during March, the remittances of the workers were increased by 27.4 per cent. Two and a half billion dollars were received during this period, which has further increased the current account balance surplus.

Remittances are very important for Pakistan. The government is taking steps in this regard. Roshan Pakistan Digital Account is also a link in this chain. Remittances were being sent through illegal sources due to the devaluation of the dollar in the inter-bank and open market. As a result of the removal of the cap from the exchange rate, the smuggling of dollars to Afghanistan decreased and the trend of remittances increased. Generally, overseas Pakistanis send 15 to 20 percent more money during Ramadan due to charity, zakat and higher expenses, so the trend of increasing remittances should continue even after the holy month.

During March, the highest remittances came from Saudi Arabia, which was 56.39 million dollars. 422.2 million dollars came from Great Britain, 406.7 million dollars from the United Arab Emirates, and 31.6 million dollars from the United States.

Earlier, February saw a 5 percent increase in remittances. According to the report of the State Bank, during the first 9 months of the financial year 2022-23, a total of 20 billion dollars were received in the form of remittances from Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, other Gulf countries, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States.

The national economy is currently facing its worst crisis and several factors have contributed to bring it to this state, chief among which is the trade imbalance, i.e. foreign exchange is withdrawing more than the inflow and the resulting deficit is on the most severe terms.

It has to be fulfilled by taking external loans. The size of the country’s safe reserves, which fell to less than four billion dollars a few weeks ago, has been slightly managed by the government’s hard efforts, but its status can be estimated from the Indian reserves, which currently stand at $600 billion.

Remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis are considered very lucrative in the conditions created by the trade imbalance. In 2020, the State Bank in collaboration with domestic commercial banks introduced the Roshan Pakistan Digital Account by giving attractive incentives to expatriates. Through this account, overseas Pakistanis pay utility and other bills and children’s education fees etc. State Bank has crossed its target investment milestone of 6 billion dollars under which the number of its account holders has reached 536 thousand.  Currently, 1.12 million Pakistanis are living abroad, of which more than 10 million are in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman, while the rest are in Western and other countries. With the involvement of these people, a substantial increase in the number of account holders in Roshan Pakistan Digital Account is possible. For which the government can improve the foreign exchange reserves through its embassies and other sources including online abroad jobs while staying in the country are very important, greatly increasing the current targets.

The remittances can further grow if the overseas Pakistanis are properly paid in foreign lands.

There is no denying that Pakistani migrant workers in the Gulf estates including the Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar etc are not paid according to international standards.

Their exploitation is a known fact. Not only they are meagerly paid, a large number of them are languishing in jails for petty charges.  In fact, it is a deeper malaise. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistani workers flock to Gulf and other states in bid to secure jobs and feed their families back home, but for many of them, it is a nightmare experience. Time has come we must value the expat workers who remit money back home in a record number and pay heed to their issues in real sense of the word. The remittances sent by overseas Pakistani back home are the backbone of our economy as they are the main source of foreign exchange, but the rewards for these migrant workers are almost nonexistent, which is a matter of serious concern.

Globally, our country is  the fifth highest recipients of foreign remittances and with the passage of time, the growth is gaining further momentums as now there is also a shift in workers attention from Gulf states to other sophisticated abodes and markets like  Canada, US and the France as well. European countries like Germany, Span and South Africa are also attracting a good number of our work force.

In this backdrop, the expat workers are the backbone of our economy but unfortunately the issues being faced by overseas Pakistanis are not taken seriously by the successive governments in Pakistan.Though Pakistani report problems from over the world, but those working in the Gulf states are the most vulnerable section of our labour force abroad.

As par latest reports, an estimated 7,400 Pakistanis are currently in jails in Gulf states. Majority of these jailed workers comprise poor and unskilled workers and their families back home also live in piles of poverty so they are unable to get any help either from their families back home or the Pak missions abroad. Overall,   four million Pakistani expatriates are working in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

These are the registered workers comprising both skilled and unskilled work force while the actual number must be high as many make to outer countries through illegal channels as well.   Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development data has revealed that over fifty per cent percent of these overseas workers are hailing from Punjab, followed by KPK with 26 percent and a sizeable 9.5 percent from the Sindh province.  Majority of them are engaged in low-income jobs like labourers, welders, masons, carpenters, plumbers, or farmers, gardeners etc.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 14 2023

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