The economic condition of the country is becoming deteriorating day by day due to the regime change in the political scenario, instability and administrative incompetence, political conflicts are the major hurdles at present. Distrust in government institutions and all major public institutions are rapidly leading to disillusionment, and in this changing situation highly educated people are migrating to overseas countries for jobs, and the brain drain is becoming a serious threat to the country to prosper in the coming days.
A UN report has confirmed a massive brain drain from Pakistan over the past decade. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) said in its report issued on July 17, 2022, that 16.5 million migrants moved abroad from the country, which is the highest in the world. The report titled “World Population Prospects 2022” states that Pakistan is among the 10 countries where the estimated number of migrants between 2010 and 2021 is more than one million who are moving to other countries.
In the past decade, more than 70,000 highly educated Pakistanis related to the fields of health, teaching, and engineering left the country for better employment and a better future. Among them, 67 percent are engineers, 20 percent are doctors, and 12 percent are teachers. The data of the Pakistan Overseas Employment Corporation indicates that in the last three decades, 36 thousand Pakistani youth, including doctors, engineers, and teachers migrated to overseas countries.
At present, approximately one and a half to two thousand PhDs are unemployed across the country. These are the people in each of whom the government of Pakistan has invested millions. But in the current situation, there is no intention or determination to take advantage of them. While awarding scholarships to these PhDs, HEC had imposed a condition on them to work in Pakistan for five years in exchange for the scholarship after completing their degree.
This condition was neither inappropriate then nor is it now because if the state of Pakistan educates a person, his first responsibility should be his own country. This was the reason why no one was opposed to this condition before and no one is today. The number of highly educated people leaving the country, as well as those with less skilled technical skills, has exceeded one million annually.
Pakistan is one of the fortunate countries where the youth population is very high but they are getting no proper jobs to adjust them properly. The state spends lakhs of rupees on a doctor and what is the misfortune that he goes out, after that even the engineers are leaving this country until the electrification and the state is sitting on its hands and watching.
Every year, thousands of young people graduate from universities and colleges in Pakistan and leave for employment, mainly due to a lack of vacancies in the public and private sectors. Despite the passing of 75 years since the establishment of Pakistan, the solution to the problems of the young generation or planning to provide better opportunities for their future appears to be the last line on the list of government priorities.
In the manifestos of political parties, there are various programs and projects regarding the youth, but in practice, the rulers renege on their promises by crying about the lack of resources. In terms of talent, ability, and intelligence, our youth are not behind any developed country. According to the report of the Higher Education Commission, more than three million students are studying in graduate and post-graduate programs and about five million young people earn degrees every year.
At present, from Google to Twitter, Facebook, and all other big multinational companies, people of Chinese and Indian origin are holding key positions. These people did not get jobs in Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, or Bombay, but the majority of them were students who were sent to America and Europe for higher education. They completed their education there. Those who wanted to return to their country came back, while the rest went on to occupy good positions in the universities and in these big companies.
Pakistan has to take huge and concrete steps to harness the potential of its youth. Otherwise, the skills of the youth of this country will be acquired by multinational companies at cheap wages and the products made with these skills will continue to be sold to poor countries at high prices and they will never be able to get out of the circular flow of poverty.
Although there are many institutions for higher education in Pakistan, many students prefer to go abroad. At present, there are a total of 184 universities in both the public and private sectors. However, according to a Gallup-Pakistan survey, not only skilled professionals and university graduates want to leave the country, but semi-skilled and unskilled workers also want to migrate in search of better opportunities.
According to UNESCO statistics, around 60,000 Pakistani students are currently studying abroad. The latest Open Door report states that there are 7,475 Pakistani students studying in the US (2020-2021). While this figure reflects a decrease of 5.8% compared to the previous year, several other countries saw double-digit declines. Pakistan ranks 18th in the number of international students in the US during the 2020-2021 academic year, with the US ranking as the second most preferred destination for Pakistani students.
No one can say that going abroad for education is wrong, but it is wrong for our most talented students not to come back to Pakistan, especially after getting better opportunities in the country. It is sad that those who have the best opportunities are not using them to add value to the country and society. The youth going out of the country after getting a higher education is a matter of moment for the entire nation to devise proper policies for local job opportunities.
Experts believe that Pakistan’s future heavily depends on how talented and educated our youth will be. We must offer incentives to our students to come back, or to study here, by creating better institutions. We need to use our students to impart knowledge, and not to export our intelligence.
It is strongly suggested to policymakers to provide better job opportunities irrespective of caste, creed, race, or nationality, promote people on merit alone, provide attractive salaries to highly qualified people on the basis of their qualifications and experience, and improve the quality of our universities and bring them at par with universities in Europe and America, provide adequate research facilities, do away with the quota system at once if not done till now, through this system, the less intelligent and inefficient people have been getting admission to professional colleges.
