Pakistani diaspora New policy for expats by month-end says Sattar

"The policy will be unveiled at a conference in London on November 30," says Minister for Overseas Pakistanis.

ISLAMABAD:

The government will announce new policy to address the issues of overseas Pakistanis by the end of this month, Dr Farooq Sattar, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, said on Thursday.

Sattar was speaking at the concluding session of a two-day conference titled “Potential and Prospects of Pakistani Diaspora”, organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) in Islamabad.

He said the policy, which will be unveiled at a conference in London on November 30, will provide an integrated approach to address the needs of the Pakistani diaspora.

The policy will not focus on remittances only, Sattar said, but try to utilize the potential of overseas Pakistanis in fighting extremism, bringing development, advancing education and creating human capital.

Sattar said the policy also includes projects such as opening universities in all provinces for and by the overseas Pakistanis, schemes for attracting Pakistani scholars, researchers and scientists to reverse the brain-drain and providing investment opportunities in Pakistan for the diaspora.

Earlier, speakers discussed the effect of global recession on remittances and influence of remittances on disaster management during the third session of the conference.

The fourth and final session focused on sharing regional practices. Dr MA Kalam of the University of Madras and Dr Els van Dongen from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, talked about the Indian and Chinese model of managing diaspora respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2012.