'Endowment Fund' for expats' welfare on cards

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) is planning to set up an endowment fund with an expected seed money of Rs50 million to offer legal aid to distressed Pakistani expatriates by hiring prominent lawyers abroad.

The fund will also be used for carrying out the initiatives aimed at the welfare of overseas Pakistanis.

"Consultations are being carried out at the ministry with the relevant stakeholders to materialize the initiative at the earliest," an official source in the OP&HRD ministry told media. He said the idea of establishing a fund was floated by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari during a meeting held here the other day to finalize targets and goals for 3rd and 4th quarters of current fiscal year.

During the meeting, the official said Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Managing Director Dr Amir Sheikh said, initially, the fund might be launched with Rs50 million seed money.

To this, the SAPM proposed that the ministry's attached departments should also contribute 10 per cent of their earnings for the endowment funds, he added. A top official of the OP&HRD ministry said the process for creation of endowment fund might take months as the ministry had to draft its rules and would be requiring the approval of competent authorities.

He suggested that the overseas ministry's representatives could be given representation in a similar type of fund that had already been set up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide legal aid to under-trial overseas Pakistanis, the official source said.

He said the SAPM directed to the officials concerned to hold further deliberations over both of proposals and submit a report in that regard as soon as possible.