'Home remittances'

This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "Home remittances" carried by the newspaper yesterday. It has concluded its argument by saying that "it is difficult to pin down all the reasons for a healthy growth in workers' remittances... We earnestly hope that the present government will continue to monitor the situation closely with a view to ensuring a rising trend in home remittances in the years to come."

In my view, however, the workers' remittances unfortunately face the prospect of a major reduction owing to the situation obtaining in the Middle East following the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by the US and Iran missile attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq. Growing tensions in the region could affect the size of remittances that Pakistanis and people from some other countries, including those from India and the Philippines, generate in the GCC countries.