Although the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has been very active in political point-scoring, yet its main leader and Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar has failed in getting his ministry’s National Policy for Overseas Pakistanis passed by the federal cabinet despite a lapse of around two long years. The policy had been drafted by Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, in 2010. The MQM has been focusing on the affairs of the very ministry as it feels that a huge chunk of overseas Pakistanis belong to it. The OPF last year also circulated the draft of the National Policy for Overseas Pakistanis to all stakeholders concerned to get their input and comments. It had also been decided by the OPF board of governors that after getting input from overseas Pakistanis, the draft of the policy would be widely publicised through various means, including the Pakistani missions abroad, community welfare attaches and associations of overseas Pakistanis, as well as by placing it on the OPF website.
The objective of the policy was to serve the overseas Pakistani better and to streamline various incentives and services provided to them by the government.
The draft policy had recommended that the government launch a pension scheme for Pakistani expatriates
through an Overseas Pakistani Pension Trust (OPPT). According to the draft policy, pride of performance awards had also
been proposed for distinguished overseas Pakistanis.
But in November last year, Dr Farooq Sattar told the National Assembly in a written reply that the policy was still
under preparation.
The draft policy had promised to prepare a database of overseas Pakistanis for providing them various facilities, including ones related to health and education. The database, as per the proposed policy, had to be linked with the head offices of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and NADRA through international networking.
According to the draft policy, status of the Overseas Girls College, Islamabad had to be raised to a university level,
while the OPF was supposed to establish centres of excellence in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Under
the proposed policy, scholarships had to be awarded to children of overseas Pakistanis if they opted to study in Pakistan.
The policy had also asked the government to legislate to protect properties at home of overseas Pakistanis. The draft
policy had also stated that immigrant workers and their families would be informed about foreign currency investments
facilities and bond investments.
No concrete policy can be expected from Sattar, other than mere promises, because the agenda is different.
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