Brain Drain: 1 Million Left Pakistan Last Year for Work Opportunities

Unemployment, being a major concern in Pakistan, is hurting the potential of the country. Talented youngsters and experienced workers are leaving the country in hopes of finding better jobs. During the last year alone, about 1 million Pakistanis left the country to find better work opportunities in foreign nations.

Senate Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was informed that since 1971 (separation of Pakistan), over 9 million Pakistanis have emigrated via the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.

The number peaked last year when 946,571 people moved to other countries in hopes of finding better employment. Since 2013, 2.32 million people have left their home country for overseas employments. 6 percent of these people moved to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, nearly one percent headed to the European Union and other developed countries, while three percent chose Malaysia, Libya, South Korea as their employment destination.

While providing details on the matter, Federal Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Khizar Hayat Khan, pointed out that despite Khyber Pakhtunkhwa making up just 12 percent of the country’s population, 26 percent of people belonging to the province reside in other countries. As many as 0.5 million people from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) work abroad.

However, he added that these people remit very large sums of money back to Pakistan. Though, the conditions in FATA and KPK do not represent the effect of this money. The Federal Secretary admitted that corruption is a big problem in the country which can be solved by computerising the complete system. Senator Lt General (retd) Abdul Qayyum referred to the corruption in recruiting protectors and asked for their background checks.

The panel has called to set up additional offices of Protectorates of Emigrants after Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Director General Rana Matloob mentioned that the whole country has only seven such offices.

He is the Chief Content Officer at ProPakistani. Reach out at aadil.s[at]propakistani.pk


  • جس پتھر کے دور سے ہمارے جرنیل ہم کو ڈراتے تھے

    آج پاکستان اس دور میں داخل ہو گیا ہے

    نہ کوئی پاکستان آنا چاہتا ہے اور

    اکثر ملک نہ پاکستانیو کو انے دیتے ہیں

  • If our own rulers dont want their children to stay in Pakistan why would others want to stay here?

  • to be HONEST … Pakistan deserves this … even worse than this !
    for the standard of living and the technological lethargy this land offers , every sane person would leave this place with the first opportunity he gets !

    • Yaar kya baat kar di aap ny. Pakistan kesy deserve kar skta hai aisa? :(
      Kya nahi hai iss land mai? Kya Dry area hai yahan Agriculture nahi hai industry nahi hai ?
      Kya cold desert hai yeh mulk ? Darya nahi hai yahan ? Ports nahi hain yahan ?
      Kis cheez ki kami hai? Kya kuch iss Land ny hamain offer nahi kiya?
      Pakistan aisa bilkul bhe deserve nahi karta bhai. Yahan ki Awam aisa deserve karti hai saza inhain milni chahiye aur mil bhe rhi hai Alhamdulillah in aik sy barh k aik Notanki Rulers ki shakal main.

  • Who would want to live in a country which have slave like democrazy and endless corruption I say good luck to them have better life.

  • Imo unemployment is the biggest issue of Pakistan.There aren’t any jobs available in the market and what is more worrisome is that no one is talking about this being an issue let alone the solution.

    • There is no shortage of Job Opportunities in Pakistan, trust me on that, if there is shortage of something that is called “Reference”

  • You write, and I quote “The number peaked last year when 946,571 people moved to other countries in hopes of finding better employment.” — it is a tad short of million, right?

    Some questions that I have after reading this:

    1. How many of these 950K were Pakistanis? because we have seen people of other nationalities taking Pakistani passports and going abroad to disrepute Pakistan.
    2. How many went abroad through legal channels and how many through human smugglers? I suspect the later will constitute the higher %.

    Those who go abroad for work are actually an asset for Pakistan because they send the precious foreign exchange that runs this country.

  • Being a Pakistani, reason is because I work for atleast 11-12 hours a day but still affraid to give education and treatment to my family, simply can’t.

      • Allah Ta’ala hamain bhi tofeeq de mulk chorne aur behtar jagah pe rehnay ki family kay saath.
        Aameen

  • 6% moved to GCC
    1% moved to Europe n other developed countries
    3% moved to Malaysia, Libya and south Korea etc
    Where does remaining 90% of this 1 million count headed?????????

    • Antarctica may be. Corruption nahi ho gi wahan bewaqoof awam nahi ho gi wahan zabardasti k leaders nahi hon gy wahan mazhab ko hathiyar banany waly nahi ho gy wahan. Garmi nahi ho gi pani bhe mil jaey ga bijli ki zaroorat nahi rahy gi dunya sy wesy he peechy hain thora aur peechy reh jain gy no problem. :)

  • As long as Pakistan have democracy situation will not change and the solution is NOT dictatorship. Solution is Khilafah, Islamic ruling system.

    • Isn’t Khilafah and Islamic Ruling System are 2 different kind of things?
      Khilafah borders ki mohtaj nahi hoti i think which means khilafah for the whole muslim world atleast?

      • When you will have Islamic ruling system it will automatically aspire to be a Khilafah. How you going to keep ahkam that call for removal of borders with the Muslim world separate in an Islamic ruling system.

  • Zara Nam ho to ye mattee ! Well lack of planning and resource management are the key issues here. Govt. needs to make a plan in order to accommodate the graduates for proper job or business opportunities in the country. If you see the trend of entrepreneurs in past couple of years which is a very healthy sign. Freelancers in the field of software development and consultancy are doing quite well as far as offshore development is concerned. We need a proper career consultancy of students at University levels. Besides all this we need to train our kids that “All that glitters is not Gold”. I would give a small example that if there is something wrong in my own house, I’d fix that problem rather than running away from that problem. We have got very intelligent resources in all professions of life however we need to ensure that we make a policy to retain majority of the graduates, cultivate competitive environment and stop the brain drain from our country.


  • Get Alerts

    Follow ProPakistani to get latest news and updates.


    ProPakistani Community

    Join the groups below to get latest news and updates.



    >