Indifferent attitude towards overseas Pakistanis ‘unforgivable’, PM Imran tells ambassadors

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday asked the country’s ambassadors serving abroad to forgo colonial-era attitudes and treat overseas Pakistanis with compassion, saying the current indifferent attitude towards expatriates was “unforgivable”.
Speaking to Pakistani envoys posted in capitals around the world virtually, the premier read out specific complaints received from overseas Pakistanis, especially those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, asking the embassies to put their affairs in order. Referring to the issues that have come to light at the Pakistani missions in Riyadh and Jeddah, Prime Minister Imran acknowledged that he had not paid the matter as much attention as he would have liked because he was occupied with “domestic issues”.He stressed that if Pakistan today had not gone bankrupt, it was because of the remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis.
Recalling his own time in England as an overseas Pakistani, Imran regretted that the country’s embassies “by and large” treated educated, well-to-do expatriates with respect but were indifferent towards the labour classes.“I remember some ambassadors used to have a really bad attitude with the labour community, like masters would deal their [subjects] in the colonial days,” he said. The prime minister said after the government received complaints from Pakistani labourers in Saudi Arabia and following “one or two incidents”, he sought feedback about the embassy from some expatriates he knew. “The feedback was shocking … there was callousness and nobody worried about them,” he added, saying the reports matched the complaints received on the government’s Citizens Portal… Last week, in an unprecedented move that sent alarm bells ringing across Pakistani diplomatic missions abroad, the government had suspended the outgoing ambassador to Saudi Arabia and recalled six diplomats posted at the embassy in Riyadh on allegations of improper treatment of Pakistanis living in the kingdom. An inquiry was also ordered against the envoy and the recalled diplomats. Source: dawn.com