Employment hopes

In the darkest hour of Covid-19 pandemic, unprecedented leaps in unemployment have been witnessed worldwide — and not in Pakistan alone. As companies shed jobs and issued pink slips to existing employees, grief and distress swelled, prompting the families of the jobless to wonder how to put food on the table. Amid this gloom, when news of fresh job openings filters through, it predictably gladdens the heart. Overseas employment is the cherished goal of most countrymen and when some friendly country signals that it is open to welcome Pakistani workforce, it naturally mitigates the Covid-induced pain.

This is precisely the case when first Qatar said jobs for Pakistanis will rise and now Kuwait has followed suit. According to media reports appearing in the first week of March, Qatar’s Consul General Mishal M Al-Ansari said that Doha has plans to increase employment opportunities for Pakistanis to over 300,000 in the coming years from the current 150,000. Aside from the various fields in which Pakistanis become the right fit in the rich kingdom, the diplomat’s pronouncement should be judged in the context that it is gearing up to host football’s world cup. The event requires a mammoth sporting infrastructure and a huge workforce. That is exactly where Pakistanis could find a role.

Also, last week, the visiting foreign minister of Kuwait Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah assured Pakistan that his country would increase the participation of Pakistani skilled workforce in its multiple trades in the future. Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Chaudhri, while responding to a question about Kuwait visa curbs for Pakistanis at a briefing, expressed the hope that the issue would also be resolved soon. He noted that Dr Al-Sabah had appreciated the positive contribution of more than 100,000 expatriate Pakistanis towards the development of Kuwait. Both countries’ announcements should lift spirits of people stricken by the effects of the contagion. Also of particular note is the fact that while jobs have been lost in some areas, opportunities are rising in other industries. We should find hope in time of despair.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2021.

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