‘Overseas Pakistanis have always come forward to support their motherland in difficult times’
OVERSEAS Pakistanis have proven themselves as assets for Pakistan and have always come forward to support their motherland in difficult times, Pakistan Overseas Community Global (POCG) Chairman Mian Tariq aved has said.
Speaking at a colourful event organised by POCG Qatar Chapter at Grand Qatar Palace Hotel, aved briefed the audience about the mission and objectives of his forum. Highlighting a number of achievements in a short span of time since the forum s inception, aved said the main objective of POCG is to raise awareness among Pakistani community worldwide of their rights and to guide them about local laws and ways to resolve community issues. He also shared the idea of publishing a guidebook for overseas Pakistanis about different services available in their respective countries of stay.
He lamented that although overseas Pakistanis support their country s economy by sending hard-earned remittances back home their political leaders only render lip-service when it comes to resolution of their genuine issues.
“We can understand that overseas Pakistanis have political affiliations but they should always think about Pakistan first. We should only send money to Pakistan through legal channels as our beloved country is in dire need of economic stability,” said aved.
He remarked that during the past three years, the POCG extended its
reach to 9 countries which include Gulf countries, Russia, Australia, apan, South Africa, Europe, America, and Canada and Sri Lanka. “We staged demonstrations in Islamabad for the voting rights of 9 million overseas Pakistanis. Our members participated
from different countries and succeeded in getting the right to vote. ut with the change in the government, once again we were deprived of our legitimate right. We are quite optimistic for our victory as our case is still pending in the Supreme Court. We also
demanded that those overseas who retire and returned homeland should be given pension,” remarked aved while adding that his forum is trying to establish privileged counters at all government departments.
He proudly announced that his forum played an important role in introducing legal reforms pertaining to the resolution of issues related to property and businesses of overseas Pakistanis.
He mentioned that at present around 5 , Pakistanis are living in South Africa and there were no direct flights from Pakistan. With the efforts of POCG, now Pakistanis can reach South Africa in 1 hours. He said Ireland mission will be established in Pakistan in March which will help in finding more higher education opportunities for Pakistani students.
Earlier, President POCG Qatar Ikram utt and his team welcomed
the distinguished guests. utt thanked his team members who stood by him in difficult times especially during COVID-19 pandemic. The event commenced with the recitation of Holy Quran by Raja Farhan Khalid followed by a naat by Abdullah Tarar. Rana Anwar Ali hosted the event.
Arshad Hussain Hashmi stressed to work with unity for the betterment of Pakistan and underlined the importance of social media for constructive reasons.
Women Wing President Tabinda Shafiq assured that the issues of overseas Pakistani women will be solved on priority basis.
Certificates and shields were distributed among the team members of POCG Qatar Chapter. Representatives of different organisations and individuals were feted for their community service. Mohammad Ajmal Chaudhry proposed the vote of thanks.