based Pakistan Engineers' Society is collecting the data of manpower needed in Saudi Arabia to regulate Pakistani workforce in the Kingdom. The data would be considered by the policy planning cell of the Ministry of Labor, Manpower and Overseas, Pakistan to prepare a labor market information system and analysis to meet the requirements of the national and international labor markets. “The data and feasibility report will be submitted to the Pakistani government to chalk out a smooth and effective strategy to export manpower to the Kingdom. Government authorities will exercise in the light of this feasibility report compiled by us,” said Aziz Ahmed, General Secretary of Pakistan Engineers' Society. He said that Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had consented to collect data on his visit to Saudi Arabia in June. “The Kingdom has had one of the biggest workforces from Pakistan between 1975 and 1995,” he said. Due to some irregularities committed in the 70s, the government decided to bring about control in the business of overseas employment. Following this the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) came into existence in 1976 under the Ministry of Labor, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis. The early 1980s saw the OEC arrange overseas jobs annually for around 10,000 to 14,000 Pakistanis. Since then, the performance of the corporation remained marked by ascents and descents, sending job-seekers abroad in the range of 2,000 to 8,000 persons a year. In the Kingdom, recruitment of manpower from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Nepal is preferred owing to their cheap costs, as compared to that from Pakistan. “The manpower of other countries like Sri Lanka and Philippine is comparatively cheap. This caused the reduction of Pakistani workforce here but the biggest retrenchment of our manpower in the Kingdom happened due to the Saudization policy,” Ahmed said. In 2003, the Saudi Manpower Council mandated that the number of foreign workers and their families should not exceed 20 percent of the total population by 2013, and that the number of persons from any single nationality should not exceed 10 percent of the total expatriate population. “I have suggested to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that the government should establish close alignment with the Saudi government so as to accommodate Pakistani manpower,” Ahmed said. “There will be many benefits from this step. Firstly, the unemployment factor will decrease. And secondly, Pakistan's economy will progress due to the foreign exchange remittances from Saudi Arabia,” he said. According to the CIA world fact book, the unemployment rate in Pakistan is 7.5 percent. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the inflow of remittances in the July-April 2007-08 periods from Saudi Arabia amounted to $1,001.71 million. Ahmed said a feasibility report to accommodate Pakistani women workforce in Saudi Arabia was not considered due to the controlled policy of the Pakistani government for women overseas employment. “There is progress in the situation of Pakistani women, but the policies are the same, and there is still a need to train women to prepare them to work outside the country,” Ahmed said. “Traditionally, a Pakistani woman holds the family's responsibility and she cannot stay alone as an expatriate in the Kingdom, like the Filipino or Sri Lankan nurses. Our society is conservative and does not encourage women to work overseas,” Ahmed noted. He said he will include the women empowerment factor in the feasibility report after discussions with members of the forum. In Pakistan, women's migration was banned from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Although this ban has been lifted, women are still discriminated against. The empowerment of women in Pakistan is an inherently gradual process. Women are far less represented in Pakistan's workforce than men, in both rural and urban regions. However, thousands of women from middle and lower income families across Pakistan today are represented in different professional capacities. Women from humble backgrounds are venturing into competitive fields such as restaurants, textiles and schools. Chairman of policy planning cell at the Ministry of Labor, Manpower and Overseas Pakistan Dr Sabur Ghayur said that the ministry is making all possible efforts to train women work force in the country. __
