During a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Senator Rana Mahmood Ul Hassan lamented that 50,000 Engineers and IT Professionals in the country are unemployed.
He urged the ministry to develop a mechanism in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other related ministries to aid the Pakistani Engineers to help them become skilled workers in Japan, China, and other countries considering the prevailing dire economic crisis.
He said that highly skilled qualified professionals are desperate for jobs and as of now are even willing to work for Rs. 15,000 to 20,000 per month.
Senator Zeeshan Khanzada while endorsing the viewpoint of Senator Rana Mahmood Ul Hassan said that the level of desperation among the People of Pakistan is such that they are willing to give millions of rupees in lieu of employment visas because of severe inflation and recession in the country.
The committee on Overseas Pakistani and Human Resource Development which met on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Senator Manzoor Ahmed Kakar at the Parliament House urged that a proper mechanism should be developed to focus on specifically sending skilled professionals abroad.
The committee sought a detailed briefing for clarification on the SOPs of overseas employment. The Secretary Ministry apprised the committee that through a new arrangement “We are now focusing more on the educated sector including IT professionals, Engineers, Para Medical staff. It would abruptly increase the foreign remittances”, the secretary said.
Senator Rana Mahmoud Ul Hassan raised serious questions on the inability of Pakistan to migrate engineers to Japan irrespective of the fact that Japan needed three hundred thousand workers. “We were not even able to send 100 workers”, he said.
Senator Shahadat Awan further inquired about the reasons behind such negligence. The committee sought a list of the number of skilled workers sent to Japan and also details on the educational qualifications of each.
The committee also inquired about the clauses of the MoU signed with Saudia Arabia. “We have to see where we are lacking in the MoU between Pakistan and Saudia Arabia”, Senator Sahadat Awan said.
The officials apprised that in 2019, a bilateral agreement was signed according to which a skill verification program was set up by the Saudia Arabia government in Pakistan known as the Takamol having 18 centers with its headquarters in Islamabad.
The program is led under the supervision of NAVTTC and comes under the Ministry of Education. The official of the overseas Pakistan foundation apprised the committee that 2.8 million workers are employed in Saudi Arabia at present.
On inquiring about the criteria and system through which Korean skilled immigration is conducted, it was apprised that Pakistan is among 19 countries that are members of the Korean Employment Permit System. Through this system, skilled workers are sent on the basis of merit and country-wise quota allocation.
He apprised that this year, Korea allocated 1100 skilled workers from Pakistan. He further apprised that overseas foundations also furnish training on culture and specified skills to the selected immigrant.
While discussing the issues faced by the ministry on skilled immigrants, the secretary overseas ministry contended that one of the issues is the inability to determine the migrant intentions. It is unclear whether the migrant will become an immigrant or remain a skilled worker which leads to issues of human trafficking and legal procedures.
The ministry secretary further said that language is one of the issues while clearing immigration to countries like China, Japan, and Korea. He said that the committee should give directions to NAVTTC to conduct language training courses. He also said that through NAVTTC, “we are also planning to establish regional centers for language training and test centers.”
The committee sought the appearance of NAVTTC to brief on the matter in the next meeting.
