'Naya Pakistan Calling': Only 640 Pakistani expats interested to go back home?

Pakistanis living in the UAE topped the number of expatriates who sent their applications online showing interests to go back and work in Pakistan followed by expatriates living in Saudi Arabia.

Some 187 Pakistani expatriates in the UAE have applied for jobs in their country through the online portal followed by 184 from Saudi Arabia.

It means that a total of 371 out of total 640 job application received by the Naya Pakistan Calling (NPC) job portal were received from the UAE and Saudi Arabia alone.

Response from UK, US and Europe was the lowest.

Sharing expertise

These overseas Pakistanis have registered themselves at the official website of Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), expressing their readiness to share their expertise to build the "Naya (new) Pakistan" envisioned by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The NPC is a web portal set up by the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development in in November last year as part of the first 100-days initiative of the government to reintegrate Pakistani diaspora in national mainstream.

According to the OPF, the CVs of all aspirants had been forwarded to the departments concerned which were being processed at this stage but no one has been offered a job so far.

Once approved, the contenders would be given an opportunity to share their professional skills in their relevant fields.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari said this platform was established on the instruction of the Prime Minister Imran Khan who was keen to utilise the valuable asset (expats) of the country.

The idea, he said, was based on brain gain and earlier, the previous regimes did not pay heed to use this resourceful segment of the country, which resulted into brain drain, he added.

Bukhari said the government was providing a gateway to the expatriates to involve in policy and decision making process of the country, for which they would be placed as the members of important departments' boards.

Urging them to convince their friends and relatives for applying on this portal, he said the government needed their support and worthy suggestions to translate the vision of Prime Minister Imran into reality.

Pakistan expatriates history

More than 8million Pakistanis live and work abroad. This includes more around 1.6 million in the UAE and around 3million in the UAE.

Overseas Pakistanis started migrating to various countries in 1960s’ and 70’s for better economic opportunities and some of them have excelled in their fields and have attained prominence as professionals in different walks of life.

These Overseas Pakistanis have always shown keen interest to contribute for the betterment of the country.

Prime Minister Imran in his first address to the nation has invited notable Overseas Pakistani professionals to contribute in the making of Naya Pakistan.

As a first step, Overseas Pakistanis who are par excellence and can be part of the Public Sector Institutions/Advisory Bodies, etc. at Federal and Provincial level shall be invited to join and contribute to their country.

Interested Pakistanis were given the chance to send their CVs online through OPF’s web portal opf.org.pk.

The OPF has labelled ‘Naya Pakistan Calling’ web portal as a database comprising of professional profiles of overseas Pakistanis, accessible to all stakeholders.

Who qualifies

The potential candidate must have graduation degree and should have at least five years of relevant experience in one or more of the fields of finance, law, management, sales, marketing, administration, research, corporate governance, technical operations or other disciplines relevant to the company’s business.

The applicant should be willing to act as an independent director and can confirm that on appointment, would devote reasonable time to the affairs of the company in order to enable him/her to discharge given responsibilities