Commissioner Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) Punjab Afzaal Bhatti has said that OPC intends to establish working relations with the Lahore Chambers of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) to facilitate expatriate Pakistanis regarding their investment plans. Collaboration between the two institutions would help yield positive results. He was talking to the President (LCCI) Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan here at LCCI.
Director General OPC Javed Iqbal Bukhari, former LCCI Senior Vice President Malik Tahir Javed and Executive Committee Member Chaudhry Khadam Hussain were also present on this occasion.
Mohammad Afzal Bhatti said that overseas Pakistanis have been facing immense problems, for instance family or property disputes, law and order concerns, settling down issues, employment hindrances, etc. He said that OPC is brainchild of the Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and is playing an efficient role to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis through redressing their complaints.
He said that expatriate Pakistanis can register their complaints from any part of the world through state-of-the-art web complaint portal while a 24/7 help line has also been established for those overseas Pakistanis who have no access to the internet. He said that the Commission has so far received about 7000 complaints during the last two years, out of which 50 percent have been resolved.
The LCCI President Abdul Basit said that overseas Pakistanis are true ambassadors of the country and LCCI is ready to collaborate with OPC to sort out the issues of expatriate Pakistanis.. He said that overseas Pakistanis from labor class are facing more challenges than the professionals therefore Commission should evolve special policies for labor class.
He said that agent mafia causes huge financial loss to the innocent people. Commission should convince overseas Pakistanis to invest in Pakistan, that would help country get rid of the undue borrowing.