Overseas Pakistanis are a valuable asset of the country who play an important role in the country's economy and their remittances play the role of a lifeline for Pakistan's economy.  If this flow of foreign remittances stops, Pakistan may face bankruptcy. It is gratifying that these remittances are increasing over time.

 In the last fiscal year 2023-24, domestic remittances were 30 billion 30 billion dollars and thus compared to 27 billion 30 billion remittances in 2022-23, domestic remittances increased by 10.5 percent during 2023-24, which is the total exports of Pakistan 30.6 billion dollars. In the financial year 2023-24, the highest amount of remittances received from Saudi Arabia is $7.4 billion, followed by the United Arab Emirates with $5.5 billion, the United Kingdom at the third place with $4.5 billion, and the United States at the fourth place with $3.6 billion. Remittances received 3.5 billion dollars from the European Union at the fifth place, 3.2 billion dollars from the GCC countries at the sixth place and 4.2 billion dollars from other countries of the world. 

If Pakistan's total remittances are compared to remittances from Gulf countries alone, more than half of remittances are received from Saudi Arabia, UAE and other GCC countries. According to the ranking of remittances in the world, the country that receives the most remittances is India, which receives 87 billion dollars annually, followed by China with 54 billion dollars, Mexico with 53 billion dollars, and the Philippines with 36 billion dollars. billion dollars, Pakistan is on the fifth place with 31 billion dollars, Egypt is on the sixth place with 30 billion dollars and Bangladesh is on the seventh place with 23 billion dollars. Due to their education, English language skills and technical skills, workers from the Philippines and India are preferred worldwide and receive higher salaries than Pakistanis, as can be seen from the remittances sent to these countries. The fact is that the credit for the increase in Pakistan's remittances goes to the FATF, whose strict measures led to a substantial decline in handi and reference and the business of handi was severely affected.  FATF is not only active in Pakistan, but FATF has also taken large-scale initiatives in UAE and other Gulf countries, for example, in countries where previously foreign employees were usually paid in cash, which they paid through their 'Hundi'.  

Countries used to send to their families, now it has become necessary for all the companies in the Gulf countries to open the bank accounts of their employees and transfer their salaries to the account, which they easily send to their families through the bank, but unfortunately, those living abroad, some Pakistanis prefer to send their funds through 'Hundi' and Reference instead of banking channel because of the slight difference between Interbank Official Rate and Open Market Hundi rate. One of the reasons why overseas Pakistanis prefer 'hundi' or reference to the banking system is the slowness of the banking system due to which their remittances reach Pakistan late, unlike those sent in the morning through handi or reference.  The money is received by the family in Pakistan by evening. The government should further improve and reform the banking system and encourage overseas Pakistanis to send more remittances through the banking system so that Pakistan does not lose valuable remittances. There are currently 13.53 million Pakistanis living in 50 countries of the world including educated and uneducated workers and their number is increasing every year.  In 2023, more than 860,000 Pakistanis went abroad, while in 2024, 800,000 Pakistanis have gone abroad so far and it is expected that remittances will increase further in the coming years. China, India, Bangladesh and other countries are moving towards digitalization to increase their remittances, but Pakistanis are still relying on the traditional banking system. The government should provide means for overseas Pakistanis to stay connected to their transparent remittance system.  Similarly, the government should train the manpower through vocational training and send them abroad so that they can get jobs at higher wages, which will further increase our remittances and the time is not far when in the next few years domestic remittances of Pakistan will increase. Exports will be exceeded. Increase in remittances and control of imports have reduced the deficit. Trade deficit decreased by six percent and remittance increased by eleven percent. Experts have attributed the reduction in the deficit to strong exports of food and high value-added textiles.  Lower import payments due to improved domestic agricultural production also reduced the trade deficit. Pakistan's economic crisis is rooted in chronic fiscal deficit.  Any measure to control this should be welcomed. Policies should also be formulated to make the country's export sector fully functional. The current account deficit has significantly reduced due to the persistent measures in recent years to increase investment, reduce the import and export gap, reduce the trade deficit, fight corruption and remove obstacles in the way of doing business.  According to the recent report of the State Bank, this deficit has come down to the lowest level in thirteen years. It decreased by 79%.

The difference between dollars coming in from exports and remittances, imports and dollars sent out of the country for educational or other purposes is seen in the current account deficit.  If more dollars go out of the country and less comes in, it is a deficit. If more dollars come into the country and less go out, it will be a surplus. In 2018, the total current account deficit was over $19 billion. 13 billion in 2019 and the deficit had fallen to $2.97 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020.  According to the State Bank, this deficit was 661 million dollars in the financial year 2023-24, which is 79% less than the deficit of 3.275 billion dollars in the same period of the previous financial year.