Flight of talent

Pakistan's brain drain worsens as instability drives skilled workers to seek better opportunities abroad.

Pakistan has a serious brain drain problem and, unfortunately, no attention is being paid to address its causes and ramifications. Apart from adverse socio-economic conditions - primarily an outcome of stagnation and absence of growth and wealth generation - pestering political instability and lack of a lawful decorum at the helm have widely contributed to this syndrome. As per rough estimates, more than a million skilled and educated people have left for greener pastures over the last few years, and this tendency is also being witnessed among the affluent classes. Bankers, engineers, doctors, hi-tech experts and IT gurus constitute a major chunk of people who have apparently resigned to the perception that Pakistan is no more a profitable place, and where opportunities of growth are dismal. To add to this tribe are labourers and semi-skilled people who are constantly on the lookout for an adequate opportunity to exit the country, and are not averse to taking risks.

So is the case with a huge component of people waiting in the wings to migrate to industrialised states. The desperation can be estimated with the number of passport applications - 40,000 or so - that NADRA receives per day, and the severe backlog it is faced with in issuing the travel document. This also underlines the sense of disgust in the system in vogue, and is understandable taking into account the shrinking number of opportunities in a populace of 245 million, swelling at the rate of 2.4% per annum. This phenomenon has also widely obstructed the talent coming back to the country after completing studies, and even those who went on government-funded scholarships are ungrateful in paying back by returning to their motherland.

Flight of talent amid dismal hope in the economy and political system has now attained a psychological perception. It needs leadership qualities and innovative solutions to restore trust in the edifice of governance. Encouraging talent, undoing favouritism and putting an end to the culture of ad hocism and nepotism is the way to go.