The finance minister of Pakistan forecasts remittances to be around $35bn for the current fiscal year 2024-2025, which was about $30bn in the previous fiscal year that ended in 2024. He further elaborated on the loss of state-owned entities and how they are adding to the loss in the country’s GDP. He emphasized the privatization of such entities. On the other hand, Imran Khan, in his next plan of action, ordered a civil disobedience campaign starting with overseas Pakistanis to stop sending remittances to Pakistan.
Why have remittances become so important for a country’s survival? Ministers are happy seeing the numbers go up; politicians want them to stop, so the state could take a hit from the civil disobedience movement. It seems that if we are talking about any small, landlocked Central Asian state, so limited in resources and sanctions that send out its labor to run the country’s affairs. There is no shame in anyone praising the high number that is still growing with all the challenges Pakistanis face to move abroad with one of the lowest-ranked passports, to sponsor the incompetent and barbaric system back home. It seems the fourth most populated country with all types of seasons and geography has become a labor-producing factory for European and Arab nations. This year, Pakistanis will send back home hard-earned $35bn to the state that begs for $4-5 from international organizations and other fellow nations. Still, citizens will lose respect in the world after struggling in foreign nations to survive in their own country because all that is sent will be taxed to sponsor the rotten system and its corrupt officials. Officers will be awarded with more benefits and allowances; new schemes for stakeholders would be introduced, but the quality of life and ease of business will be reduced. Youth would not get opportunities; the only number where their country is progressing is the number of births and the number of remittances each year.
The chart of remittances shall be a chart of shame for the country, especially when you claim to be rich in resources and strategically located and yet become a remittance-based economy. A state where remittances are celebrated and encouraged has already failed. The process of induction in government institutions is a challenge for the youth, and after all complex selection procedures, those institutions are contributing to the loss, and to sponsor them, the state looks up to the overseas laborers. Seems as if Pakistanis are feeding a sick cow that needs treatment and not food, because eventually if this goes on, it would be of no benefit for them. The trend of depending upon remittances is moving upward, and it seems as if the state is enjoying and encouraging it, as there are no plans to work on developing the nation’s work infrastructure on manufacturing capacities other than cutting Greenland for concrete structure that too targets overseas Pakistanis, offering them quality living. That’s one of the ironies of being a Pakistani.