The Interior Minatory of Pakistan in a bid to bolster national security decided to block the passports of Pakistani nationals seeking asylum abroad.
The National Identity Card of such Pakistanis will also be blocked. The Ministry also decides not to issue Pakistani passports to those citizens granted asylum abroad.
What the government wants to achieve by this decision is best known to it, it raises certain questions such as: What alternate policy does this government has to address the unemployment in Pakistan and to support those planning to go abroad particularly other than the Arab countries to earn their livings? What will be the legal authority of such an order? Can the government establish its argument in court if it is challenged? So far, this government remained fail in proving its argument even in the May 9 cases.
The Directorate General of Immigration and Passports issued a directive yesterday stating that any Pakistani who seeks asylum in another country will be denied from granting him his country’s passport. This order was issued under the guidance of Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. It was circulated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other relevant authorities. Importantly, this order was issued when the PMLN was ruling this country. Previously this party has been a strong opponent of such acts of the government.
In 2020 when Imran Khan was the prime minister, both the former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and the former finance minister Ishaq Dar. Both requested their diplomatic passports but were denied. They were denied of this national document when they were in London and the courts here declared them absconders. The then Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said Nawaz would not be issued a Pakistani passport in order to get back in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif could apply for an Emergency Travel Document filling certain conditions including prior bookings of travel through Pakistan Airlines, he stated.
He said a passport was not a fundamental right of any citizen in Pakistan. It was the property of the federal government. A citizen’s right to travel abroad is extinguished once declared a fugitive. Mr. Nawaz was declared a proclaimed offender by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a criminal appeal titled “Mian Nawaz Vs NAB, as well as Toshakhana Reference by an accountability court in Islamabad and declared absconder in reference in the case of Mir Shakeel- ur- Rehman by an accountability court.
The PMLN despite the stated situation strongly criticized the denial of this right to Mr. Sharif and also penned a letter to the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, asking him to take notice of this denial of issuing a passport to Nawaz. It was challenged in the IHC, but the plea was rejected following the above-said reasons. Capt. (retd) Mohammad Safdar also sent a copy of this letter to the Pakistani consul general in Jeddah with the hope that he would take notice of the violation of this fundamental right of Nawaz. Mr. Safdar sent this letter to the consul general stating that legal steps would be taken against him if the passport was not issued to Mr. Sharif. Afterward, when Shehbaz Sharif became the prime minister, he directed the authorities to issue the passports to both Nawaz and Ishaq Dar. Pakistan’s high commission in London was directed to issue diplomatic passports to both Nawaz and Ishaq Dar. The question is not about seeking asylum or not, it is about depriving of a citizen of this document.
According to the reported data, nearly 12 million Pakistanis have left Pakistan since 1990 onward. The majority of such people have been asylum seekers. They have been earning and supporting their families in Pakistan. Though this doesn’t justify prompting Pakistanis to seek asylum, the government’s decision is likely to compel such Pakistanis not to return to their home country. It will promote the concept of marriages in countries such as Pakistanis are living to avoid seeking asylum.
Have we ever thought about why people leave Pakistan and seek asylum abroad? If there had been enough food in plate, the situation would have been different. If such Pakistanis are back in this country, then what arrangement does this government have for them? Pakistan’s reputation in the world improves more when there are enough jobs and security for life and business.
Making cosmetic arrangements will not resolve the issue, till the root cause is not addressed; this is a general principle. This decision is likely to further aggravate the situation. Such Pakistanis may choose not to return. It can cause a loss of economy, culture, and citizens. It will further promote the culture of bribe and other ways to find the solution. Seeking asylum abroad if not required is not good at all, but alternatives in Pakistan are required to discourage this practice and to stop the human capital loss.
Pakistan’s reported unemployment rate is 6.5%, ranking 24th in the world according to World of Statistics data. It presents a picture of the country’s economic landscape. 31 percent of the Pakistani youth is unemployed in Pakistan. The unemployment rate of a country represents the share of people without a job in the country’s labor force. A high unemployment rate usually indicates economic troubles.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) forecasts Pakistan’s unemployment up by 1.5 million since 2021. According to the ILO estimates, in 2023, Pakistan’s employment ratio was expected to reach 5.6 million. The government uses the foreign loans in settling the deficits instead of spending on the production This distress of economy is the reason behind the flight of both skilled and unskilled labor from Pakistan.
In recent times, Pakistan has witnessed a significant trend in emigration as millions of its citizens actively seek opportunities abroad. In 2020, nearly 6.3 million Pakistani immigrants were residing abroad, making Pakistan one of the top ten immigrant populations globally and now this number has to nearly 11 million. In the year 2023, 862,625 people migrated from Pakistan and this number in in 2022 was 832,339. It suggests a 3.6 percent increase from the previous year. Another crucial avenue of migration is educational mobility, which has recently seen a substantial surge in the number of Pakistani students studying abroad. These students often opt for Western nations, primarily to pursue permanent residency. Prominent destinations include the UK, Australia, the US, Canada, and Germany, among others.
Recently, China, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea. The most significant growth in 2022/23, reaching 10,164 students, with roughly 16 percent growth, indicates a growing interest in US education among Pakistani students in recent years. In the case of Australia, a significant change occurred in 2022-23 when the number of student visas granted in 2022 surged by around threefold compared to 2021, indicating a resurgence in international student mobility. The number of asylum seekers different European countries was 19436 in 2023 and in 2022 this number reached to nearly 34000.
According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Pakistan has the 6th largest diaspora in the world. In 2021, overseas Pakistanis sent record remittances with growth at 26 percent and levels reaching 33 billion USD in 2021. A large number of Pakistanis are living even in African countries such as South Africa. Nearly 100,000 Pakistanis are living just in South Africa. The majority of them live in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban Grahamstown, and Pietermaritzburg.
Many expatriates run spaza shops, and cellphone stores; and Johannesburg’s Fordsburg is said to be among the best places in the country to find Pakistani cuisine. The influx of people arriving from Pakistan has increased significantly in the last 10 years. A vast majority of Pakistanis in South Africa made themselves eligible for nationalities after asylum.
It is important to note that the National identity is a critical component of individual and collective consciousness, shaping personal identity, societal cohesion, and cultural heritage. In some instances, individuals may feel compelled to suppress or reject their national identity due to political, social, or personal reasons. Economically, the suppression of national identity can have both positive and negative effects.
Individuals who feel compelled to block their national identity might seek opportunities elsewhere, leading to brain drain and the loss of skilled labor. On the other hand, those who successfully integrate into a new culture may contribute more positively to the economy of their host country than their parent country. The implications of blocking one’s national identity are complex and have far-reaching, effects.
How long this decision of the government be sustained and what positive impacts it have is a question? What system the government develops to implement this order is another question. If there is some other reason behind this decision of the government then it is was not explained yet. Some Pakistanis living on asylum in some African countries in their response to this order of the government said, “It doesn’t matter what the Pakistan government decides on our IDs and passports. We are earning here and supporting our family. If there are any problems, we will take our family here with us and say goodbye.â€
(Senior journalist Rana Kashif has authored this article)