Sajid Hussain Turi orders abolishing OEC fees
Staff Writer
Islamabad: Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sajid Hussain Turi this week directed abolishing Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) fees and sending a summary in this regard to the cabinet for approval.
“The workers proceeding to foreign countries through the OEC shall be sent free of cost and the fees ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 should be abolished for which a summary should be moved to the cabinet immediately,” he directed while chairing a meeting of the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment (BI&OE), the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) and others. He was given a briefing by his Ministry Secretary Zulfiqar Haider and other senior officials.
Turi directed establishment of new protector offices in Bannu, Abbottabad, Sukkur, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir to expedite the process of emigration and protection.
He directed digitizing the BI&OE, the OEC and the protector offices to make the process of protection faster, transparent and easier. He said strict action would be taken against officials involved in illegal activities and corruption.
Turi said that since he took the charge of his ministry, dozens of overseas promoter licences were issued and renewed, which were pending for more than three years. He directed preparing a summary to fill up vacancies so that the efficiency of the institutions could be enhanced. He said his directives should be issued to all community welfare attachés (CWAs) to improve their performance for the welfare of overseas Pakistanis.
He said a fortnightly online meeting of all CWAs would be held to review their performance and every CWA would have to send a monthly performance report to his office, listing the solved problems and grievances of overseas Pakistanis in their countries.
The minister said that on the instructions of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, an online complaint portal was being established for overseas Pakistanis so that they could lodge complaints. He said that for new manpower export, the OEC must explore markets in various counties.
