Pakistan

Record number of emigrants registered for overseas employment in 2022

Published

1 year ago

Farwa

Number is reported to be highest since last five years.
Declining trend observed in years 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.
Pakistan signed 12 manpower export MoUs with different nations.

ISLAMABAD: As many as 829,549 emigrants were registered for overseas employment through the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) in 2022 — the highest in the last five years.

The statistics regarding emigrants were shared by the Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Pakistani and Human Resource Development Syed Agha Rafiullah at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Responding to questions, Rafiullah said that 12.45 million Pakistani workers, since 1971, had been registered with the bureau for employment abroad till 2022.

However, a declining trend was observed in the years 2020 and 2021, as only 224,705 and 286,648 emigrants were registered by BE&OE respectively due to COVID-19 restrictions, he said.

He said that the ministry has taken several measures to explore and tap into the international job markets for intending emigrants.

A diversification strategy was adopted to shift focus to new labour markets and the declaration of intent on migration and mobility has already been signed with Greece and the UK and soon would be signed with Germany.

Rafiullah said 12 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) on manpower export with different countries including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Portugal, Romania and Uzbekistan were under bilateral discussion.

The overseas minister visited Romania and Portugal to explore new regular labour migration avenues, he said.

He added that the government had appointed 24 community welfare attachés in 16 different countries to explore new avenues for Pakistani manpower through Labour Market Analysis (LMA) of the host country so that skilled Pakistani intending emigrants could be imparted required training as per labour market requirements of the host country.

He said approximately nine million Pakistanis were working/residing in different countries around the world and contributing towards the socio-economic development of the country.

However, the parliamentary secretary said that there was no dedicated mechanism for providing solutions to the protection of their properties. In order to address the issue, the ministry/Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) undertook the initiative of proposing a bill that would address their grievances and provide protection to overseas Pakistanis with regard to their properties.

To another question, he said all the regular employees of OPF schools and colleges were getting minimum remuneration as prescribed by the government. Furthermore, contract employees were being paid a salary as per the terms and conditions of contractual employment rules/polices and as per advertisements published in newspapers at the time of hiring, he said.

However, he said, the remuneration of some contract employees was still less than the minimum wages as declared by the Federal government. Furthermore, up to a 10% annual increment was also granted to the contractual employees upon renewal of their annual contracts, he said.

Business

Price of LPG “slashed” by Rs. 20 per kilogram

Published

25 mins ago

Farwa

Sources claim that LPG rates have been lowered by Rs 20, making the cost per kilogram drop from Rs 280 to Rs 260.

It is noteworthy to remark that the costs of LPG were reduced by Rs 20 per kilogram earlier, resulting in a total reduction of Rs 40 per kilogram within a few weeks.

The price of liquefied petroleum gas for the month of May 2024 was lowered by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on April 30.

The LPG tariffs were lowered by Rs 11.88 to Rs 238.46 per kilogram in accordance with the OGRA’s notice. On Wednesday, May 1, 2024, the new rates will go into effect.

In April of last year, the price per kilogram of LPG was Rs 250.34. pricing reduction of Rs 140.18 has resulted in a new pricing for home LPG cylinders set for May 2024 of Rs 2813.85.

The OGRA reported a drop in liquefied petroleum gas pricing in April. The price of LPG is now Rs 250.34 per kg instead of Rs 256.78 due to a reduction of Rs 6.44 per kg.

The price of the household cylinder was fixed at Rs 2954.03 for the month of April, down from Rs 3030.12, a decrease of Rs 76.9.

Business

ADB delegation stops by FBR headquarters

Published

30 mins ago

Farwa

Senior Director ADB Tariq Niazi oversaw the expedition, which also involved Sana Masood, Farzana Noshab, and Senior Public Sector Management Specialist Laisiasa Tora. The meeting included presentations from economists as well, according to an FBR press release.

The officers focused on structural and policy adjustments as they discussed the Domestic Resource Mobilization Program’s implementation at the meeting.

$300 million was given to the Pakistani government by ADB in December 2023 as a result of the hard work and dedication of FBR. Better laws, regulations, and institutional capability for the FBR were established by Sub-Program I.

With the $300 million in funding provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the Government of Pakistan in December 2023, the delegation conveyed satisfaction with the program’s effective launch.

The FBR also underlined how crucial digitization is to recording the economy and boosting productivity in a sustainable way.

In order to promote the Government of Pakistan’s Digital Tax Administration Project, both parties decided to look into measures to improve their cooperation.

Latest News

Off-duty police in Islamabad are prohibited from donning uniforms.

Published

36 mins ago

Farwa

The new directives, according to specifics, were sent via wireless by the federal capital police and state that no officer may wear a uniform when reporting for duty or leaving it.

According to the police official, uniforms will only be worn when on duty; otherwise, two policemen will accompany each other during duty hours and will always be required to carry guns.

A different development was the earlier release of an app by the Islamabad Police with the goal of improving crime prevention and public safety.

Launched on the orders of former Interior Minister Sarfraz Akbar Bugti, the recently released ICT-15 app aims to empower the people of the capital city by giving them the ability to actively engage in the battle against crime and protect their areas.

Residents of Islamabad can now easily download and utilize the ICT-15 app because it is easily accessible on the Google Play Store.

Citizens can report a variety of issues with this easy-to-use application, such as incidents, unlawful behavior, complaints against law enforcement, the presence of undocumented people, or any suspicious criminal activity.

The police promise quick reaction times as soon as information is reported using the app, so assistance will be provided as quickly as feasible.