Economy in drain, Pakistan losing its brain, at record rate

By Yudhajit Shankar Das: People are deserting Pakistan and that too, in record numbers. With an economy that has crumbled and the country seeing record-high inflation, over eight lakh Pakistanis left the country in the first six months of this year, creating a new record. Of them, a lakh were highly trained professionals, including doctors, nurses, engineers, information technology (IT) experts and accountants.

The official figures, however, could just be half the story, as thousands more are taking the illegal route to Europe.

According to a report quoting figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 8.32 lakh Pakistanis have left Pakistan till June this year. About 4 lakh were educated and qualified professionals.

Though Pakistan has been a witness to large-scale emigration in recent years, what could be of particular concern to it is trained professionals leaving the country in droves.

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With rising unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, a collapsed economy, political uncertainty and a rise in fundamentalism, the ground is best-suited for brain drain.

MOST EMIGRANTS FROM PAKISTAN'S PUNJAB

Pakistan has been a witness to rising emigration in recent years.

Last year, about 7.65 lakh people left Pakistan. Of them, about a lakh were highly skilled professionals.

More than half of the emigrants were from Pakistan's Punjab province, according to an Express Tribune report, which quoted Pakistan Bureau of Emigration data. About 27,000 were from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK).

The 2022 figure was three times the figure of 2021 when 2.25 lakh Pakistanis emigrated to other countries. In 2020, 2.8 lakh Pakistanis left the country for foreign shores. What needs to be kept in mind is that both 2020 and 2021 were pandemic years when travel restrictions were in place across the world.

Officially, the majority of Pakistanis are emigrating to West Asian countries, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to an Express Tribune report of 2022. Among the European destinations, the report said, the preferred choice of the Pakistanis was Romania.

Unlike India, which doesn't allow dual citizenship, Pakistanis emigrating to another country can retain their Pakistani passport and use it for travel too.

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At least seven ministers in former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's Cabinet either had dual nationality or another country's permanent residency. This dual citizenship provision has been one of the root causes of corruption in Pakistan, with funds being siphoned off abroad by politicians and military generals.

ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RUIN

A corruption-marred political scene has led to Pakistan's economy being run on borrowed money.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had on July 12 approved a $3-billion bailout package for Pakistan, helping it from defaulting on its debt repayments. The government has taken drastic measures to avoid an external loan default, which has, in turn, hit economic growth and jobs.

The IMF, warning that Pakistan faced "exceptionally high" economic risks, projected that its external debt would reach a staggering $131 billion in 2023-24, up from $124 billion in 2022-23.

Inflation is at a record 38 per cent. Pakistan's currency has depreciated rapidly too.

“Hundreds of thousands of young men, including highly educated people, who are worried about inflation, unemployment and an uncertain economic and political situation, are going abroad every year in search of employment,” an official of the Bureau of Emigration was quoted by the Express Tribune as saying.

Remittances to Pakistan by those who have shifted abroad form a major part of the Islamic country's economy but that cannot take care of the trade imbalance. Historically, Pakistan's imports have been more than its exports. Add to that its huge expenditure on the military, which it has maintained with an eye on India.

Pakistan lost its vision and mind too, drifting towards Islamic fundamentalism. Its obsession with India and investment in exporting terror has been counterproductive too.

It is also because of the rising fundamentalism that its tourism sector is in a shambles.

Despite being a cotton-producing country, it failed to develop its textiles industry. It couldn't even cash in on the tech boom, like India did, and its talent left for foreign shores.

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In what reveals the dire situation that Pakistan's businesses are in, startup Jugnu closed all its core business operations last week. Jugnu, a startup that connected provision stores directly with large suppliers and manufacturers, raised $22.5 million in funding last year.

The recent power struggle with former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan challenging the military establishment and the latter cracking down, has added another chapter to its long history of political instability. Experts see the noose tightening on Imran Khan and he either being jailed or exiled to a neutral country.

Businesses and industries cannot survive, let alone thrive, amid such political uncertainties.

Seeing a bleak future, people in droves are emigrating from Pakistan.

PAKISTAN'S GREEK TRAGEDY

The brain drain from Pakistan is noticeable most in the country's healthcare system, which is already in a fragile condition.

"It is painful to see some of our best doctors move to the US, but can we blame them? The conditions at public hospitals are often dire, and the health workers get paid so little," German media outlet DW quoted Karachi-based gynaecologist Afsheen Akbar as saying.

An experienced immigration agent working in Islamabad told DW that he hadn't ever seen such huge numbers of people emigrating from Pakistan before.

But the official numbers could just be the half story.

There's a steady flow of illegal immigrants from the country to European countries.

On June 14, at least 350 Pakistanis were killed off Greece when an overloaded boat capsized and sank in the open seas.

The tragedy is the latest example of the desperation of Pakistanis where they pay around $8,000 to get smuggled into Europe through the sea route after flying legally to Dubai, Egypt and Libya.

The urge to flee an economy in tatters is understandable. Signs of financial stress having strained daily lives and the social fabric are more than evident.

"Teachers at non-elite schools report a spike in marital strife, domestic violence and mental illness. With desperate parents holding down two or three jobs, children are anxious. Some have confided to school counsellors of having suicidal thoughts," Pakistani writer Moni Mohsin said in an Opinion column in the Guardian in March.

Pakistan is facing a full-blown crisis and the hopelessness and disillusionment among its people is making lakhs leave the country, at times staking their lives.