Chairman Board of Governors Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), Amjad Malik Monday said around 5,300 families of Pakistani workers stranded in Saudi Arabia had been paid Rs 50,000 per family as compensation, as per data available in the Pakistani embassy.
He said the compensation amount was being paid to the families of stranded workers on the directives of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
He said the rest of the families would be given the cheque of compensation as soon as their data would be available to the OPF through the embassy.
He said the compensation amount was being paid to the affected families with the efforts of OPF and Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM).
Around 8,500 workers had been facing problems regarding non-payment of their salaries, renewal of residency permits, transfer of work permits and jobs etc.
Malik said, Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Pir Sadruddin Shah and Managing Director, OPF,
Habibur Rehman Gilani visited Saudi Arabia and took various steps to redress their issues.
He said ‘one window facility’ was established in the Pakistani embassy in Saudi Arabia on urgent basis to resolve problems of the stranded workers instantly. A helpline was also installed there.
They also held meetings with the relevant Health and Labour Ministers to provide them free of charge health facilities and help to get their pending salaries through court.
To a question regarding increasing the number of Community Welfare Attaches (CWAs) in the countries having Pakistani labour, he said their numbers will be increased according to the requirement.
He said a proposal was under consideration to appoint more CWAs in UAE to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis.
Amjad Malik said recently OPF had responded to the issue faced by around 400 Pakistani workers due to default of a construction company.
The compensation amount of 100 Riyal was given to the workers through embassy while the construction company also paid 500 Riyal to them, he said.
The remittances of overseas workers were considerable assets for the country’ economy and OPF was taking every measure to resolve their issues. (APP)
