The Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, chaired by Syed Rafiullah, pressed the Ministry and federal agencies to step up accountability through a formal CWA audit after finding briefings and responses from Community Welfare Attach\u00e9s in the Gulf region incomplete and uneven in quality.<\/p>\n
Members voiced concern that no systematic performance review of CWAs exists despite the scale of welfare responsibilities overseas. The Ministry acknowledged capacity constraints but committed to a structured performance audit and qualitative reviews to link CWA performance to formal evaluation mechanisms. The Committee urged clear rules for posting timelines and extensions after noting continuation of officers beyond tenure without a defined legal framework.<\/p>\n
The Federal Investigation Agency briefed members on a new refusal to departure cell under review by the CCLC and on Standard Operating Procedures developed for pre-departure facilitation desks at airports. The Committee directed that information about these desks be displayed at immigration counters in Urdu so travellers who were wrongly offloaded can seek immediate redressal, reinforcing the demand for stronger off-loading redressal measures.<\/p>\n
Briefings from CWAs in Gulf missions covered deployment figures, welfare facilitation, jail visits and labour market conditions, but the Committee highlighted absences from key stations and gaps in consolidated timelines for postings and extensions. Comparisons with regional peers underscored Pakistan\u2019s limited diplomatic welfare footprint relative to the size of its overseas workforce, a gap the Committee said must be addressed through strategic deployment and a comprehensive CWA audit.<\/p>\n
Specific country concerns included delays in Bahrain where localisation policies and slow progress on joint technical initiatives have affected labour agreements and project timelines. Members also raised the non-recognition of certain Pakistani qualifications abroad and asked the Ministry to pursue these issues with relevant authorities to protect workers\u2019 placement prospects.<\/p>\n
A notable operational complaint involved recruitment for welders bound for Korea, where candidates were tested and interviewed but ultimately not placed. The Committee directed that this recruitment case be investigated and its findings submitted, citing it as an example of governance shortcomings in allied organisations and a signal to tighten oversight of overseas hiring processes.<\/p>\n
Repatriation procedures for deceased overseas Pakistanis, delays in processing, and the underutilisation of institutional assets were also discussed, with the Committee recommending a review of repatriation mechanisms and institutional reforms to curb corruption and improve service delivery for families of deceased workers.<\/p>\n
The Committee concluded by asking the Ministry to provide complete data on complaints against CWAs, consolidate and improve the quality of future briefings, and to frame clear accountability measures including formal CWA audit processes and rules governing extensions. The meeting was attended by federal and ministry officials and members including Dr Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, Mian Khan Bugti, Fateh Ullah Khan, Erum Hamid, Mah Jabeen Khan Abbasi, Muhammad Ilyas Choudhary, Saeeda Jamshid, Zulfiqar Ali Behan and Farhan Chishti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Standing Committee urges CWA audit and clearer accountability to improve services for overseas Pakistanis, pressing Ministry on extensions and off-loading redressal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}