ISLAMABAD: Following complaints against problems such as land-grabbing and police corruption in the country by overseas Pakistanis, a parliamentary panel on Tuesday called for further strengthening the proposed special courts to address the grievances of overseas Pakistanis in a more effective manner.

A bill titled, “The Establishment of Special Court (Overseas Pakistanis’ Property) Bill, 2024” had already been introduced in Senate, which was discussed in Senate Standing Committee for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.

The committee chairman said that the expatriate Pakistanis are the asset for the country, whose issues that too in their home country such as land grabbing, etc, must not take place.

The federal secretary for Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Dr Arshad Mahmood told the panel that the bill proposes creation of special courts to address the grievances of overseas Pakistanis regarding illegal occupation of their properties.

The bill allows overseas Pakistanis to submit online petitions and sets a time period of 60 days for resolution of disputes, he added.

The committee opined that the definition of “overseas Pakistanis” should be redefined and recommended extending the resolution period from 60 to 90 days, as the 60-day period might be insufficient for resolving property disputes.

Besides, the committee was briefed on the working and performance of the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC). The managing-director (MD) OEC Naseer Khan Kashani said that the corporation promotes the emigration of Pakistani manpower for employment abroad and ensures employment under Government-to-Government programming (G2G) and Government-to-Business (G2B) agreements.

He said that the corporation recently inaugurated a Computer-based Testing (CBT) lab in Karachi in collaboration with South Korea.

The OEC is planning to expand the project to other parts of the country, he added.

The committee directed OEC to submit details on future plans for the expansion of the CBT project and the foreign language courses offered in these labs.

He said that the OEC has successfully enhanced the quota of Pakistanis to South Korea to 4,600 annually and Pakistan besides securing top position among 17 countries in the employment permit system (EPS) worker process.

Senator Shahadat Awan pointed out that the OEC briefing states that Pakistan’s status has been inactive with UAE, Oman, Turkey, and Kuwait since 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The committee expressed dissatisfaction with the sub-par performance of OEC and directed it to make efforts to employ skilled workers from Muslim-friendly and Asian countries.

Secretary for the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development said that the country’s 14 August mission statement will unveil its 10-year plan to achieve the target of $60 billion in remittances.

Senator Khanzada said that expanding the export sector is challenging due to acute energy crisis.

He recommended the government to achieve the $60 billion remittances target in less than 10 years, as it represents country’s best hope in these challenging times.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024