Islamabad: The Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development convened its second meeting today at 11:00 a.m. in Committee Room No.7, located on the 4th Floor of Parliament House, Islamabad. The meeting, chaired by Mr. Junaid Akbar, MNA, began with a recitation from the Holy Quran. The Chairman extended a warm welcome to the honorable members and participants before proceeding to the agenda.
According to National Assembly of Pakistan, the Secretary of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP & HRD) participated in the meeting remotely and provided a briefing on the ministry’s operations and performance. The Secretary emphasized the ministry’s potential to drive development by focusing on skilled workers and leveraging the diaspora’s power to boost development through increased investment and knowledge transfer back to Pakistan. He highlighted the nation’s current unemployment rate of 6.3%, with the largest demographic being youth aged 15-34, and noted that annual remittances from the diaspora are a crucial income source.
The Secretary also discussed the sustained demand from overseas employers, diversification of supply side competencies, improved governance of the emigration process to reduce response time, and its fulfillment. Additionally, he informed the committee about institutional restructuring and revamping through turnaround strategies and effective diaspora engagement for enhanced remittances, investment promotion, and national development. Following the briefing, the committee raised questions, which the ministry addressed accordingly.
The meeting was attended by the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Mr. Sardar Muhammad Yousaf Zaman, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, Mr. Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Mr. Nasir Iqbal Bhosal, Mr. Zilfiqar Ali Behan, Mr. Syed Rafiullah, Ms. Shahida Rehmani, Dr. Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Mr. Farhan Chishti, Mr. Muhammad Ilyas Choudhary, Mr. Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mr. Sajid Khan, Ms. Saba Sadiq, and senior officers from the ministry.