Human capital flight and Pakistan

The capitalisation of human resources promises progress and prosperity to any nation. The countries that cashed in on their human potential achieved distinguished status in the world’s comity. However, those disowning their own people lag far behind in all aspects of their lives. Pakistan is regrettably one of them. Unlike the world that takes pride in its people, facilitates them and harnesses their potential for national development, Pakistan presents a glaring instance of exception. Despite the great demographic potential, the country failed to engage and contain the intellectual lot. And that’s perhaps for a reason.

The chronic elite capture — feeding the very soul and spirit of the country, its resources and the people’s rights in the name of self-serving notions — has turned it into a no-go-area for genuine talent. The country has failed to engage and contain the intellectual lot as the talented failed to receive the recognition it deserves. This is mainly because the elite-sponsored status owns and absorbs only those who complement their systematically orchestrated embezzlement of the country’s resources.

This way, they have turned the blessed and bountiful land of Pakistan into an inhospitable abode for its own people. Resultantly, a growing sense of insecurity shrouds the cognition, lives and livelihoods of the people. The dejected and desperate people are left with no option but to look elsewhere for a better living. This is evident, among many other things, from the accelerating capital flight to other countries. According to a recent official document quoted and published in this paper, a whopping 765,000 skilled and professional youth left the country for the want of better opportunities, carrier security and professional growth. This figure is thrice as high as it has been in the past two years.

In reality, disregarded by the elite-sponsored system, these people might have reluctantly bidden adieu to the motherland. Unlike the elite holding overseas assets and nationalities as an emergency escape, the people compelled to leave the country are those whose lifelong efforts are bound to go unrewarded and unrecognised. Won’t the terms ‘reluctant patriots’ and ‘reluctant expatriates’ appropriately define them?

A society where justice gets reserved for the powerful; where an unintentional violation of a traffic signal gets punished and professional criminals get protocol; where the honest gets penalised and the culprit rewarded; where the whim of powerful rather than the writ of law reigns supreme; where democracy, politics, bureaucracy, justice, national security, religion, health and education turn out to be exploitative and lucrative business enterprises; where even lifelong legitimate efforts fail some to earn a respectable living and an overnight thuggery, deception and flattery bring riches to others; where the pointless cacophony of the powerful receives more media coverage than the screams of the oppressed; questioning the growing sense of desperation and frustration is tantamount to self-denial.

A country where most of the public and private institutions get encroached on by resourceful people; where one’s background counts more than one’s ability; where money surpasses talent; where the institutionalised culture of favouritism and nepotism eclipses transparency: where intellectuals get treated as non-entities; where testing and public services auction jobs for millions; where a call from an influential overrules the constitutional and legal procedures; where political, judicial, military and bureaucratic affiliation outweighs a decade-long struggle of a candidate competing for employment; where a talented poor student ends up depressed or committing suicide; and where people get awarded with medals for corruption, hypocrisy and duplicity instead of organic talent, honesty and diligence; we should not be surprised altogether on the accelerating brain.

Amidst the ongoing instability, apathy and growing economic uncertainties, yet another surge in the human capital flight isn’t something unanticipated in the foreseeable future.