Though brain-drain has been a long-standing issue in our country, but due to economic melt-down in the post-corona scenario, it has reached an alarming level. Yes, a recent report shows over seven lac and fifty thousand educated youth have left the country in search of better future abroad.

 Out of them, over ninety thousands are highly educated and professionals including IT experts, cyber security experts, doctors, engineers,  and chartered accountants, who have been forced by the adverse economic and political instability in the country to leave their homeland. Experts say that the recent wave of lawlessness due to the increased terrorists and militant activities across the country by the banned TTP and other militants and terrorists organizations after the Fall of Kabul to Taliban is also one of the main factors forcing the youngster to opting for the foreign destinations for future living, in Pakistan have forced thousands of highly educated and skilled citizens to leave the country.

A comprehensive data by Bureau of Immigration said that there is a daunting 300 per cent increase in the numbers of youths who have settled aboard during the current so far for a bright future,

The numbers are unprecedented and can result in extreme brain drain situation in the country and experts fear that if the issues of double-digit daunting inflation, rising price hike, unemployment and continuing cost of life was not overcome, the situation can reach a critical level, creating a great vacuum  in our professional set up as the current galore of crises on the political, economic and social horizons as also the increasing lawlessness and law and order situation have darkened future of the youth and high professionals at home. That’s why they are opting for foreign lands for their future settlement.

The continuous political instability in Pakistan for a long time and the growing economic crisis has pushed the future of Pakistan into darkness.

Though these have opted for varied destinations like the US, UK, Australia, Germany and other European countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands but majority of them have gone to Arab countries mainly the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait. Malaysia and Turkey has also seen increase in Pak migrants during the current year.  China, Japan, Singapore and Korea have also attracted a good number of our highly skilled and professional youth in search of better opportunities.

This is a big loss which can create a big vacuum which can be gauged from the number of such youths i e,   7000 engineers, 25,000 doctors, 1,600 nurses, 2,000 IT experts, 6,500 chartered accountants, 2,600 agronomists and other agricultural experts and 9,00 PhDs, teachers and educationists.

Out of the total seven lakh and sixty-five thousands, an estimated 730,000 youth opted for the Gulf States, while around 40,000 settled in European and other Asian states. The following is the country-wise breakdown of the statistics by the Bureau of Immigration:   470,000 Pakistanis went to Saudi Arabia for better jobs while 119,000 headed to UAE, over 74,000 to Oman. Qatar has attracted 51,634 Pakistani professionals youth this year while another 2,000 headed to Kuwait in search of green pastures.

The irony is that our public sector universities, hospitals and other institutions are short of qualified staff and personnel but even then we have failed to pay heed to the issue of brain drain.

Another report says that hundreds of PhD scholars have also left the country due to joblessness.

This is attributed mainly to lack of power of the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) to force teh higher education institutions to regularise hiring and employment of its qualified PhD doctors after their interim jobs.

A recent survey during which dozens of PhD doctors were interviewed found that they are running from pillar to post get job opportunity in Pakistani universities.

The irony is that when these professional go abroad they immediately find a job by impressing people at the helm of affairs of the academia sector abroad.

An earlier report said that our unemployment statistics have hit 27.6% rise due to which our people seeking jobs overseas. This survey says that an estimated 54 per cent of Pakistani sought to move to Saudi Arabia, 13.4 per cent to Oman and 13.2 pc to Qatar for seeking overseas jobs.

The irony is that there is a constant decline in our job market which is shrinking with the passage of time.  On the one hand, the population is increasing by leaps and bounds while on the other hand, our employment opportunities are shrinking.

Last year, the statistics of the Pakistan’s Bureau of Emigration Overseas Employment (BEOE), said it registered around three lakh people including high professionals for overseas jobs.

While the unskilled people opt for the Arab countirs like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Qatar, the skilled professional head to Canada, US, UK, France, Germany, Malaysia, Turkey, Japan, China and athe UAE.

Workers from Punjab province top the list of those seeking jobs abroad with 1,56,877, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with around eighty thousand workers heading to overseas for employment. The previous government of the PTI led by Imran Khan had miserably failed to come to terms with the requirements of the job market. A report based on the finding of a survey carried out by the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (IPOR), over forty per cent of those interviews criticized the previous PTI rule by former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government for its  failure to create jobs at home.

The situation has further deteriorated in the wake of this year’s floods which have davastaged our economy and the job market has further shrunk. In a nutshell, the emigration of highly professional, skilled and trained labour force to abroad in search of better future is a matter of serious concern as we are losing our productive human capital.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 19 2022

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