Special desks at government offices to facilitate overseas Pakistanis

OPC vice chairman says desks will be functional by early October

LAHORE: To facilitate overseas Pakistanis, the government has decided to establish special desks at government offices, especially in embassies and police stations, The Express Tribune learnt on Thursday.

Overseas Pakistan Commission (OPC) Vice Chairman Waseem Chaudhry said that the commission has forwarded this proposal to Prime Minister Imran Khan, on which the premier has formally given approval for establishing special desks at Pakistani embassies in different countries and police stations across the country.

He said that keeping in view the problems of overseas Pakistanis, the commission has decided to speed up the complaint resolution mechanism. “Hopefully, these special desks will be functional by early October. It will help in solving the problems of overseas Pakistanis related to property, police, issuance of character certificates and other petty issues. Earlier, they either had to travel back or wait for weeks or months,” he said.

Senate committee vows to help overseas Pakistanis

Chaudhry further pointed out that since OPC’s establishment in 2014, the commission hardly resolved around 5,000 cases but during the last six months it resolved over 2,000 cases. The case resolution rate has improved from 36% to 46% and the commission aims to improve this rate further. The Chief Justice of Pakistan has already separated courts for overseas Pakistanis for quick resolution of their cases. “I believe the commission will touch 50% case resolve rate during the next six months,” he said. The commission has resolved property cases worth over Rs5 billion during this period, he claimed.

He said a new act of the commission has been cleared from the ministry of law and following approval from the provincial cabinet soon this act will be presented in the Punjab Assembly for formal approval. It will help in speeding up the case resolution mechanism, he maintained.

Responding to a question, he said that though overseas Pakistanis file all types of cases, mostly these complaints are related to property matters. After evaluation of complaints and historic case data since 2014, the commission has proposed amendments in the law in consultation with different stakeholders. It has already started receiving complaints through offline and online channels.

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had recently approved the appointment of chairmen in 29 district overseas Pakistanis committees to facilitate overseas Pakistanis.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2019.