Traders urge reserving seats for expatriates

Overseas Pakistanis play a key role in stabilising economy through remittances.

LAHORE: In the wake of the disqualification of the lawmakers holding dual nationalities by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) has called for amendments in the constitution, enabling the overseas Pakistanis to be elected to the Parliament through reserved seats, as remittances from abroad proved a lifeline for country’s economy.

The APAT General Secretary Naeem Mir urged the government and the opposition parties to allocate at least 10% reserved seats for overseas Pakistanis in the parliament. “The government will have to amend the constitution with the support of all opposition parties to facilitate the dual nationality holders, living abroad with a view to create sense of ownership in them,” he said.

In this way, their interest in affairs of their motherland will further increase, as remittances have been playing a key role in the economic performance of Pakistan, he added.

Mir said that continuous rise in remittances in the last few years has provided some protection from serious economic problems including default on debt repayments.

He said that presently, several countries, including all the seven states of South Asia, including India, Pakistan’s share had been phenomenal during 2011-12 when overseas Pakistanis sent home a record Rs13.21 billion that eclipsed all the receipts of several decades. Pakistan has now become among top five countries of the world which received huge remittances from overseas workers, out of whom majority of them will hold more than one nationality, he added.

“This goes without saying that remittances from abroad proved a lifeline for Pakistan’s economy in a situation where energy shortages, high inflation and off-target revenue collection have hurt the gross domestic product (GDP) growth.”

He said that Pakistan may still be lagging behind the full potential of remittances, which experts expected to be a whopping $20 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2012.