Jailed expats

Over 20,000 Pakistanis are languishing in prisons across at least 88 countries, despite the government's efforts to negotiate releases with countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which account for about 80% of the prisoners.

While it is true that some of the people in prison are guilty of violent crimes, a huge number are jailed due to non-violent drug offences, vice offences, illegal immigration, and even traffic offences. Unfortunately, due to issues such as language barriers, poverty, unfamiliar judicial structures and lack of legal representation, many people end up being sentenced far more harshly than their crimes would merit. And even in the case of drug offenders, who invariably understand the illegality of their actions, the Pakistani government is not without blame. Almost all of the drug offenders are mules - people arrested for carrying drugs through airports - or low-level dealers who got involved in the trade to escape poverty at home.

While governments keep lauding the contributions of expat workers, the fact of the matter is that the only reason they left is that they saw no future in Pakistan. Due to labour market upheaval around the world since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, many expats lost their jobs. While skilled workers were usually able to find new jobs abroad or had reasonable prospects upon returning home, unskilled workers often chose crime over poverty wages in Pakistan. Unskilled construction workers in the UAE can easily earn over Rs100,000 a month, with many making 10 times that amount. Meanwhile, several highly qualified professionals in Pakistan can only dream of those numbers. If the government could stimulate economic activity to create good jobs, maybe people would not go seeking greener pastures abroad.

At the same time, many criminals who are deported back to Pakistan to serve out their sentences here have managed to bribe their way out of prison and resume criminal activities. This is another government failure that no one seems interested in addressing.