KARACHI: Due to dull performance of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MOP&HRD), Saudi Arabia (SA) is the only destination left for Pakistanis workers. Around ninety percent of semi-skilled and low-skilled workers out of total manpower export are being sent to Saudi Arabia, while there has been a decline in employment in South Korea, Malaysia and Dubai on the back of dull work by the respective commercial officers in these countries.
The Ministry has allowed around 3,000 overseas manpower exporter promoters in the private sector for export of manpower. “The award of manpower export license in large numbers is without going into the credentials of the license seekers which is hurting the sector.”
Even non professionals in the field are licensed to run manpower export trade by MOP&HRD, which is hard to assimilate. Once, more than 5,000 Pakistani workers had been annually required in South Korea but due to poor performance and low competency of the Pakistani mission, job opportunities for Pakistani workers in Korea are diminishing.
Demand for Pakistani labour has always been lauded by foreign enterprises and responsible of projects due to moderate demand for salary, fewer problems and harder work ethic as compare to labourers from other countries like India and Sri Lanka. President Pakistan Overseas Exporters Promotion Association (POEPA), Hanif Rinch said due to poor policy, the manpower export to Malaysia experienced a setback in the past few days and there was a need to rectify such anomalies in future.
He said our Pakistani missions should invite delegations to visit Pakistan in order to hold talks with stakeholders and Ministry for recruitment. He asked the government to reactivate commercial sections in Pakistani embassies to generate opportunities where a highly skilled workforce is required, as our labour has always been hard-working overseas.
There is a difference between ‘work hard and work smart’, so we should produce educated and technical manpower and this can be achieve thorough concerted efforts to meet international job demands. More than 7.5 million overseas Pakistanis live in various countries including the Middle East and Far Eastern Europe, United States and Canada.
Overseas training centres in countries are imparting technical training to the workforce in order to equip them in accordance with the line of employers’ requirements.
He said these centres along with technical training to workers also conduct language and culture training tests on the pretext of sending them for employment. Rinch said OEC, a public sector organization, has been authorised to recruit, train and send Pakistani workers on work visa.
He said OEC is also imparting training to workers in line with the market requirements and it has so far trained more than 6,000 workers in past two years. Those interested should avoid unauthorised technical trade test centres and private agents who are misleading the people for employment, he advised. Pakistan remained a major supplier of low and semi skilled migrant workers to the Middle East from 1971 to 2014 as more than 8 million Pakistanis have officially proceeded abroad for employment. Out of this total manpower export, 96 percent have proceeded to six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were the main countries of destination.
