ISLAMABAD, Jun 26 (APP):Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Monday expressed grief and sorrow over the demise of former President of Pakistan Muslim League(N) Sindh Babu Sarfraz Jatoi.
He prayed for the departed soul and grant of patience to the bereaved family.
He said Babu Sarfraz Jatoi had rendered valuable services for the party.
ISLAMABAD, Jun 26 (APP): Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri on Monday urged the government to sign MoUs and agreements for safe and legal labour migration and prevention of exploitation.
He was speaking at a seminar on “International Labour Migration: Development Outlook and Policy Options for Pakistan” organized by SDPI.
He stressed devising mechanisms under SDG-8 to ensure legal, organized and safe immigration to avoid tragedies like the recent boat capsizing incident in Greece.
He added that strengthening legal frameworks for labour migration, proactive role of diplomatic missions in host countries and urged media to raise the plight of migrant workers to the attention of the world.
Dr Kailash Chandra Das, South Asia Centre for Labour Mobility and Migrants (SALAM) remarked that the lack of scientific and gender-disaggregated data on migration trends hinders effective policymaking.
He further highlighted that managing the cost of migration and protecting of labour rights are pertinent issues that require robust policy dialogues and attention from the government.
Reintegration of returned migrants is a crucial issue and consultation with them can improve the perspective on policies for imparting competitive skills to enable access to better economic opportunities, he added.
Amish Karki, Technical Officer, International Labour Organization (ILO), India stressed that Covid-19 and the recent incident in Greece highlight that the migrant workers are left on their own.
He emphasized that several issues faced by the migrant workers from South Asia are quite similar including the high cost of migration, ambiguous contract terms, substitution of contract terms, delayed and non-payment of dues as witnessed during Covid-19, limited access to health services, social and wage protection, access to justice.
He highlighted that Sri Lanka was the only country to have an effective reintegration of policy and the other countries in South Asia failed to harmoniously reintegrate returned labour migrants and the labour migration policies must be revisited and updated to cater to the recent issues.
Kashif Salik, Associate Research Fellow, SDPI, highlighted that lack of comprehensive data prevents timely prediction of changes in trends in labour migration, thus leading to weak policy interventions and difficulties for labour migrants. “Labor migration culture increases access to information and resources among migrants, which helps to facilitate the migration process and associated cost”, he added.
He elucidated that after the travel restriction from Covid-19 was softened, migration from Pakistan increased by 59% between 2021-2022. “Pakistani workers going to the UAE witnessed an increase of 189% followed by Saudi Arabia registering an increase of 77% and remittances from overseas Pakistanis rose 27% to USD 29.4 billion in FY21 and USD 31.3 billion in FY22.”
However, he said that migrant labour is confronted with salary reduction despite the rise in inflation, decline in access to healthcare, issues in visa renewal with employers refusing payment of visa renewals, decline in employment and increased lay-offs ranging up to 40% during Covid-19 for unskilled and semi-skilled.
Khansa Naeem, Research Associate, SDPI, taking a gendered analysis of migration elucidated that “Feminization of international migration is linked to a global demand for domestic workers, reproducing the traditional gendered division of labour, in which women are relegated to lower-wage jobs” and South Asia is experiencing a rise in low and semi-skilled female labour migration to Gulf and East Asian Countries.
She added that women face discrimination in legal and governing practices and are more vulnerable to gendered risks of exploitation, and gendered working conditions.
She urged for building institutional capacity and gender sensitization of policies and policymakers to upskill female workers and protect their rights.
Farrukh Jamal, Director of Research BEOE, elucidated that the National Immigration Policy is being articulated for the protection of the rights of migrant workers and to protect them from exploitation and complaint registration mechanisms have been set up at embassies, and an online portal Overseas Employment Corporation has been initiated to match job seekers with legal and safe jobs.
Shahzad Ahmed, Program Officer, ILO Pakistan emphasized skill development to tap into the competitive human resource export gap across the world. He urged the government to present a comprehensive policy to protect the right of migrant workers.
ISLAMABAD, Jun 26 (APP):After a lapse of 18 years, Pakistan has participated in the 54th session of the Algeria International Economic Fair.
A total of 638 companies, including 165 companies from 30 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Arab region, and 473 Algerian – 157 public and 316 private institutions, took part in fair, said an news release issued by Algerian Embassy in Pakistan on Monday.
The Pakistani delegation comprising over 20 businessmen representing 11 companies working in textile, sportswear, pharmaceutical industry and food industry, under the supervision of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) represented the country.
“For the first time, the launch of a digital Algerian salon presents the five strategic sectors that Algeria relies on, to achieve an economic leap outside the hydrocarbon sector, which is represented in all kinds of industrial sectors, agriculture, renewable energies, media technologies, knowledge economy and the tourism sector,” the news release said.
This salon was distinguished by the organization of the first economic forum which was held on “Investment in Algeria”. It was supervised by the Algerian Agency for Investment Promotion to identify promising investment opportunities and the advantages offered by the new investment law as well as the export opportunities within the framework of the region African Continental Free Trade.
The Pakistani participation was successful and fruitful, a positive opportunity to support the relations of exchange and economic and trade cooperation between the two countries in a distinct context of this year’s celebration. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two brotherly countries Algeria and Pakistan.
KARACHI, Jun 26 (APP): Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, on Monday said that the blue economy possesses enormous potential for sustainable financial stability and development of Pakistan and the incumbent government has placed it in its futuristic agenda of national growth.
The minister talking to media persons during the visit of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) here said that more than one thousand kilometres long coastal line and over 2 million kilometres of vast exclusive economic zone offer unfathomable opportunities to the country.
Pakistan being an agricultural country had relied on the green economy at the time while the volume of its blue economy was greater than the green one, he observed and noted that integration of both economies could boost the pace of the journey of development to a greater extent.
The federal minister said that PML-N led government has expedited important projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) that were integrated with the global Belt and Road initiative and open new vistas of growth and prosperity of the country.
He said that under the sustainable development approach, it was our responsibility to secure and efficiently monitor the country’s coastal line and maritime frontiers.
The minister while lauding the services of PMSA for the protection of the borders of Pakistan said that the agency was equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and fleet and was vigilantly securing the maritime frontiers of Pakistan.
Additionally, PMSA has also earned a good name for the country across the globe due to its rescue and relief operations in the deep sea, he added.
Ahsan Iqbal recalled that in 2014 operational capacity of PMSA was limited to a few old boats and it lacked an effective monitoring system. Then PML-N government vowed to modernise the agency and approved projects for the induction of 6 modern ships and boats in PMSA which had significantly improved the operational capacities of the agency, the minister said.
He hoped that PMSA with its enhanced capacities would keep securing the maritime frontiers of the country and preventing the dumping of hazardous materials and elimination of illegal trade within their jurisdiction.
He further said that PMSS Kolachi was developed at the Karachi shipyard and inducted into a fleet of PMSA. The Karachi shipyard had the capability to manufacture even bigger ships that would not only further enhance the country’s maritime forces but Pakistan could also earn precious foreign exchange.
Earlier, Director General PMSA Rear Admiral Imtiaz Ali, DDG Commodore Amir Iqbal Khan, Captain Shahid Sati and other officers received the federal minister on his arrival at the PMSS Kolachi and briefed him about the performance and future strategy of the agency.
Serving the nation since 1947 by providing an accurate, objective, uninterrupted flow of news to the people, the national news service is pursuing a comprehensive strategy to transform the existing news operations into a forward-looking service – APP Digital for its diverse subscriber-base and the public.
Contact us: news@app.com.pk
Copyright © Associated Press of Pakistan
