ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday said that Pakistan is running on remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis, and had they not been remitting, the country would have gone bankrupt.
The prime minister said that in the present day Pakistan, the traditional attitude of the Pak embassies could not go along, whereas the Indian embassies abroad were extremely pro-active in bringing foreign investment in their country, as opposed to our embassies.
The prime minister was virtually addressing Pakistani ambassadors stationed across the globe during which he called for according special treatment to the overseas Pakistanis and improve their behaviour towards overseas Pakistanis. He pointed out that 17 services were supposed to be provided by the embassies abroad and as per the citizen portal and feedback from overseas Pakistanis, inordinate delays, complications in routine services and non-adherence to time commitments were the common complaints.
The prime minister made it clear that this system (of embassies functioning) could not run anymore this way; it could have been in the old British colonial era. “We can’t go along with such a system in the present day Pakistan. The biggest job of these embassies is to provide service to diaspora while the country is faced with very difficult financial situation. In the given situation, they should reflect on how and what they can do to bring foreign investment home,” he contended.
Imran Khan said that Pakistani embassies give traditional response instead of redressal of grievances “so we want the attitude of ambassadors towards Pakistanis abroad to be better but unfortunately Pakistani embassies treat their citizens badly and there is no grievance redressal mechanism there”.
Imran Khan, while expressing anger over the bad treatment of overseas Pakistanis in Pakistani embassies around the world, said the old British colonial system could work like this but it could not work in present day Pakistan. He recalled how he witnessed attitude of the High Commission when he landed in England 50 years back and during 1970s, 80s and 90s and attitude of ambassadors towards Pakistanis, especially the labour class was of how masters dealt during the colonial days. The prime minister noted that their attitude to the educated and well-to-do was by and large good.
“But this needs to be changed now with reference to the overseas working class,” he emphasised. The prime minister said that due to other engagements, he could not pay as much attention to it as he should have and remarked, “after we came to power, we also gave guidance to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on what we should do for overseas Pakistanis because they are our greatest strength and because of them Pakistan is still running. Our country has not gone bankrupt due to remittances of overseas Pakistanis”.
“I started receiving complaints from Saudi Arabia, our working people had been complaining for a year and a half that the embassy was not responding, and then there were a couple of incidents,” he said.
The prime minister continued that the Pakistanis with whom he had been in touch the most, he asked them to give their opinion regarding the Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia, so the opinion they gave was a big shock that the people do not care, services are not being provided while complaints are also seen on our Citizen Portal, which were exactly the same.
“Complaints are a testament to the fact that our embassies treat their overseas Pakistanis with a colonial attitude, but let me tell you, we can't do that. The job of the embassy is to provide services to its people and after that they try their best to bring capital in their country,” he maintained.
Elaborating further on the problems faced by overseas Pakistanis in the embassies, he said that despite constant identification, no policy steps have been taken for their permanent solution, embassies do not have any communication system, monitoring staff behaviour, and hence no action is taken against those, impeding or denying services to the overseas Pakistanis.
Premier Imran Khan also read out some of the complaints made by the people on the Citizen Portal. He noted a complaint alleging that the staff of Nadra office in Kuwait was taking 250 to 500 dirhams for making illegal documents instead of guiding the people properly and instead of taking action against him, the embassy was saying that Nadra documents are made at headquarters.
Imran Khan said that most of the complaints were received from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia from which Pakistan receives the most remittances. He said that what happened in Saudi Arabia was a big shock and it was being investigated now at a high level, and more things will come to light.
He regretted that no one cared about our people in foreign jails. “We are ready to raise funds for it and we will pay their fines to those who have small fines to pay and even overseas Pakistanis are there, who can pay for them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan directed that in the next year’s budget, in consultation with the local leadership and public representatives, priority must be given to those projects in merged tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which are urgently needed by the people and will be completed in the shortest possible time.
In this connection, Imran Khan chaired a review meeting on the progress of development projects in the integrated areas.
The meeting reviewed in detail progress on the ongoing development projects in the integrated areas. The meeting was informed that so far 217 projects have been approved for the integrated areas including education, health, communication, irrigation, sports, law and justice, agriculture, energy, clean drinking water etc. Meanwhile, religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil called on Imran Khan, the PM Office said. The meeting focused on matters pertaining to social and regional importance.