Haq's Musings: Gulf

Friday, August 2, 2024

Growing Demand For Pakistani Workers in Gulf Arab Kingdoms

Millions of Pakistani workers have been participating in the development of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other Gulf nations over many decades. They have been doing so in spite of the almost complete absence of basic human rights and harsh working conditions. A recent Pakistani government report appears to negate their enormous contribution to the Arab Gulf region. Instead of highlighting their positive role and defending their rights, the report by the secretary of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development reinforces the bigoted negative stereotypes of overseas Pakistanis.

Emigration of Pakistani Workers. Source: Pakistan Bureau of Emigration

This report and other past unfounded negative statements seem to indicate that Pakistani officials are the worst enemies of their own people. An example of such reckless behavior of Pakistani officials came in 2020 when a Pakistani minister claimed without evidence or investigation that most Pakistani pilots had fake pilot licenses. While the statement was later proved to be wrong, it caused enormous damage to the PIA, Pakistani flag carrier, when its flights were banned in Europe and North America.

The claim by Pakistan's labor secretary about the Gulf nations not wanting Pakistani workers is contradicted by the government's own data showing that 426,951 Pakistanis were hired by Saudi employers in 2023-24. During the same period, another 230,000 Pakistanis were offered jobs in the UAE and 60,000 Pakistanis found employment in Qatar.

Year-wise, the number of Pakistanis hired by Saudi employers declined from 514,725 in 2022 to 426,951 in 2023. But those recruited in UAE increased from 128,477 in 2022 to 229,894 in 2023, according to the Bureau of Emigration. Overall, in 2022, 832,339 Pakistanis went to work abroad, which increased to 862,625 in 2023, according to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.

These Pakistani workers in the Gulf region are also making a huge contribution to Pakistan's economy by sending home large remittances. Pakistanis in the UAE remitted $3.7 billion during the July-March 2024 fiscal year. Saudi led with $5.1 billion, followed by the UK ($3.2 billion), the US ($2.5 billion), other GCC countries ($2.3 billion), EU ($2.6 billion), Australia ($0.5 billion) and other countries ($1.3 billion).

Pakistan's weak economy is not creating enough jobs for the nation's growing working age population. Overseas employment helps relieve the pressure. There are over 10 million Pakistanis working overseas and growing. To ensure that this avenue of employment remains open, the Pakistani leaders should be promoting, or at least not denigrating, Pakistanis working overseas.

The story of Pakistanis' pivotal role in the development of UAE is illustrated by two high-profile examples: Emirates Airline and Burj Khalifa.

Emirates Airlines flights numbers are preceded by EK which harkens back to the carrier's first flight from Emirates to Karachi. Flight EK600 was flown by Captain Fazl Ghani Mian on 25 October 1985. PIA provided technical and management assistance to the new carrier and leased a new Boeing 737—300 and an Airbus A300B4-200.

Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, was designed using software developed by Ashraf Habibullah, a fellow NED University alumnus who founded Computer Structures Inc of Berkeley, California. The Dubai landmark was built by thousands of construction workers from Pakistan.