Overseas Pakistanis may need to make sacrifices to boost homeland
At first, it was all about returning to Pakistan. In parties, get-togethers and melas in community centers all over the globe — anywhere there are groups of Pakistanis — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s election win prompted talk of return. There were videos of doctors broadcasting their decisions to pack up and leave to be of some service to “Naya Pakistan.” And, more than that, there were heated conversations among couples, retirees and students of what they could do to contribute if they did return.
Then, as often happens, reality began to set in. One reality, communicated by the government itself, was that the real needs of the country may not be an avalanche of returning Pakistanis, but rather a storm of new investment. The suggestion makes sense: A huge number of returning Pakistanis would likely only prompt disruption in Pakistan’s labor market, which is already struggling. Those who have stayed behind must literally fight tooth and nail for positions, particularly in white-collar jobs such as medicine and engineering.
Investment in Pakistan is a different sort of venture. If overseas Pakistanis take the accrued capital they have and use it to open for-profit ventures — anything from restaurants to banks to software firms and other kinds of start-ups — they would be addressing the core problem in the country: The creation of jobs. Providing venture capital for many of the original and innovative ideas that are already present in the country would jump-start the economy and create the boom that Pakistan so desperately needs. In other words, a huge influx of capital, beyond the remittances that Pakistanis already send home (and which make up a huge part of Pakistan’s economy and foreign exchange), would go not to family members but to new or existing businesses.
The new government seems to recognize the potential of this. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that he would be revamping the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis so that it would better serve the interests of Pakistanis who want to invest in the country. He said that there would be a one-window operation created so that construction companies from all over the world will have a simplified method of investing in and initiating construction projects in the country. Some of the changes quickly began to emerge. On Sept. 18, Khan appointed close adviser Zulfi Bukhari as his special assistant for overseas Pakistanis.
This last decision has received a mixed response. Bukhari (like so many Pakistani politicians) is currently being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency and National Accountability Bureau for illegally creating offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. This is likely to complicate things a bit. Allegations of corruption, even though they are common in Pakistani politics, are exactly the reason that many overseas Pakistanis feel nervous about investing in the country. Appointing someone who is being investigated makes the challenging task of increasing confidence in Pakistani institutions more complicated. Potential investors become worried that their capital will be misused or, worse still, stolen altogether. This inchoate unease — a feeling that has to be transformed into unshakeable trust — can poison what may otherwise be a very popular venture.
If overseas Pakistanis take the accrued capital they have and use it to open for-profit ventures — anything from restaurants to banks to software firms and other kinds of start-ups — they would be addressing the core problem in the country: The creation of jobs
Rafia Zakaria
Overseas Pakistanis undoubtedly want the best for the country. Already, various Overseas Pakistanis Foundations are setting up facilitation centers that would make it easier for those who have capital to send it back home. But graft and corruption, even the mere whiff of it, are enough to turn off investors. This is particularly true of overseas Pakistani investors, particularly those from the US, who are used to guarantees when it comes to institutional support. The situation also exposes the greatest hurdle that exists between a government that wants overseas Pakistanis to invest and actual investment: Institutions won’t work until the country flourishes, and the country cannot flourish without investment.
In this sense, it would make sense to not only create institutions that facilitate overseas Pakistani investment, but also to manage the expectations of the investors. Too often, overseas Pakistanis assume that investing in the native land will be just like investing in the Western world. This leads to dashed expectations as soon as something goes wrong, and things inevitably do go wrong in just about every investment venture. So calls for investment in Pakistan should be accompanied with some blunt and truthful language about the fact that such investments will likely face obstacles, including those posed by long-standing and rampant corruption, and bureaucratic delays imposed by weak institutions.
Overseas Pakistanis want to be involved in Pakistan’s recovery and in its future. Along with feeling hopeful about the future, they also need to take a minute to remind themselves that the road forward for Pakistan — which they wish to be on themselves — is a difficult one. In this sense, a helping hand in Pakistan’s recovery must be accompanied by a willingness to sacrifice, to be more understanding of the obstacles that will confront such investments, and a degree of patience. Investment in Pakistan, then, requires acceptance of the fact that this is not just investment as usual, and that some of the returns on the investment will accrue not in currency but in a sense of having done something for the country that made them who they are.
In addition to setting up centers and appointing advisers, the call for overseas Pakistanis to invest in the country should be accompanied by a call to sacrifice for the same country. Building up Pakistan from the looted and flailing nation it is right now will be a long journey. Pakistanis at home and abroad can be a part of it, if they are willing to be pragmatic, and take the idealism of patriotic fervor and convert it into the realism required for recovery.
• Rafia Zakaria is the author of “The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan” (Beacon 2015) and “Veil” (Bloomsbury 2017). She writes regularly for The Guardian, Boston Review, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Twitter: @rafiazakaria
