Why Pakistan's Embassies Fail Their Own Workers

Less helpful than Bangladesh's. Less helpful than Nepal's. The peer-reviewed verdict and what it costs.

A peer-reviewed study published in PubMed Central in 2023 documented that Pakistan's embassy in Qatar was rated as more unwilling to help its workers than the embassies of Bangladesh and Nepal. Pakistan spends only ~$15 per overseas citizen per year, compared to India's ~$81. The embassy failure is structural, budgetary, and political.

This piece sits inside the Pakistani Workers Gulf Wages cluster, under the broader Pakistan Brain Drain: The Graveyard of Remittancers pillar.

The peer-reviewed verdict

Researchers, writing in PMC in 2023, documented the failure directly: "Interviewees commented on the Pakistan embassy in Qatar's 'unwillingness to help' to protect the rights of Pakistani migrants in the country, compared with embassies of other sending countries including Bangladesh and Nepal."

Bangladesh and Nepal. Both poorer than Pakistan. Both with smaller diasporas. Both with foreign-affairs budgets a fraction of Pakistan's. Both more willing to fight for their workers in Doha than the Pakistani state has been.

The Pakistani state takes the dollars but rejects the responsibility. Your money built the country's reserves last month. Today you are just a paperwork problem.

The budget reflects the priority

Metric	India	Pakistan	Ratio
Foreign affairs budget (USD)	~$2.6 billion	~$135 million	India: 19x more
Diplomatic missions	200+	~100	India: 2x more
Diaspora population	~32 million	~9 million	India: 3.5x more
Spending per overseas citizen	~$81	~$15	India: 5.4x more

India spends 5.4 times more per overseas citizen than Pakistan does. Pakistan's embassy is not "doing its best with limited resources." Pakistan's embassy is doing the bare minimum permitted by a state that has decided its workers are not worth fighting for.

What's missing, in concrete terms

Pakistan has no equivalent of:

• India's Indian Workers Resource Centres in Riyadh, Sharjah, Doha (with Indian government staff, lawyers, translators on site)
• India's Madad Portal that tracks every diaspora grievance from filing to resolution
• India's labour attaché network at major embassies, dedicated to worker-rights enforcement
• India's Indian Community Welfare Fund that funds repatriation, legal aid, and emergency support
• The Philippines' OWWA insurance that automatically covers death, injury, and repatriation
• The Philippines' 24/7 distress hotline in every major destination country

Pakistan has Roshan Digital Account (a banking product) and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (widely criticised as ineffective). The first major Overseas Pakistanis Convention was held in April 2025 , 78 years after independence and 22 years after India started Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

The political dimension after May 9

After the political turmoil of 2022-2023, particularly around the May 9, 2023 events, overseas Pakistanis became politically targeted. Documented patterns include:

• NICOP and passport processing delays as alleged punitive measures
• Reports of overseas Pakistanis being detained at airports upon return
• Family members of overseas activists being harassed
• Visa restrictions for family members of diaspora
• Cyber crime cases filed against overseas Pakistanis for political speech
• Senior officials publicly insulting overseas Pakistanis as "anti-state"

The state takes the diaspora's money but rejects the diaspora's voice. When diaspora Pakistanis express opinions about how the country is run, the response from the state is increasingly contempt and punishment rather than engagement.

The mission statement gap

India's Ministry of External Affairs describes itself as "dedicated to the multitude of Indian Nationals settled abroad. Driven by a mission of development through coalitions in a world without borders... it provides information, partnerships and facilitation for all matters related to Overseas Indians."

Pakistan's MoFA describes itself as "tasked in managing Pakistan's diplomatic and consular relations." The language is management, not mission. India describes itself in terms of service to citizens. Pakistan describes itself in terms of diplomatic management. The language difference reveals the strategic difference.

What the solution looks like

Pakistan does not need to invent anything. Every reform on the list has been implemented by another country and proven to work:

• Build Pakistani Workers Resource Centres in major Gulf cities, modelled on IWRCs
• Launch a Madad-equivalent grievance portal with public KPIs and case-tracking
• Deploy labour attachés at every major Gulf embassy
• Establish a mandatory worker insurance fund covering death, injury, and repatriation (OWWA model)
• End political targeting of diaspora as a matter of foreign policy
• Reform consular processing with hard performance metrics and a 24/7 emergency hotline

The full plan is at The Real Brain Gain Plan.

In closing

The embassy is the face of Pakistan to its workers abroad. Right now, that face is tired, dismissive, and underfunded. The peer-reviewed verdict is in: Bangladesh's and Nepal's embassies are doing more for their workers than Pakistan's are for ours.

That is the country's choice, not its constraint. The dollars belong to us. The country belongs to us. The embassy belongs to us.

, Asad Baig

Frequently asked questions

Why is Pakistan's embassy in Qatar rated worse than Bangladesh's? A 2023 peer-reviewed PMC study documented that Pakistani migrants in Qatar reported the Pakistan embassy was "unwilling to help" with worker rights protection, compared to embassies of Bangladesh and Nepal. Lack of labour attachés, no Madad-equivalent portal, and no formal worker-services mandate are cited as causes.

How much does Pakistan spend per overseas citizen? Around $15 per overseas citizen per year, compared to India's ~$81. India spends 5.4 times more per overseas citizen than Pakistan does.

What does India offer that Pakistan does not? Indian Workers Resource Centres in Gulf cities, Madad grievance portal, labour attachés at major embassies, Indian Community Welfare Fund, Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra emergency centres, and large-scale evacuation operations like Vande Bharat Mission.

Why are overseas Pakistanis being politically targeted? After the May 9, 2023 political turmoil, documented patterns of NICOP delays, airport detentions, visa restrictions on family members, and cyber-crime cases against overseas Pakistanis emerged. The state increasingly responds to diaspora political speech with punishment rather than engagement.

Sources and notes

• "Protecting and promoting the rights of the 'reserve army of labour'," PMC, 2023
• India Budget 2026-27 Notes on Demands for Grants No. 29
• CSEP analysis , "A Better but Still Insufficient MEA Budget"
• Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs documentation
• Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Gulf Migration Research Program, March 2025
• Atlantic Council South Asia Center , "How South Asian countries can protect their migrant workers abroad," 2022

Related reading

Pillar: Pakistan Brain Drain: The Graveyard of Remittancers Parent cluster: Why Pakistani Workers Earn Less Than Indians in the Gulf

Sibling spokes:

• Why Pakistani Salaries Are Lower Than Indian Salaries in the Gulf
• How Does India's Diaspora Support Compare to Pakistan's
• What Are Bilateral Labour Agreements and Why Pakistan Lacks Strong Ones

Other pillars:

• The Human Cost of Pakistan's Brain Drain
• Why Pakistan's Remittance Economy Is a Development Trap
• The Real Brain Gain Plan

Thank you for reading.

, Asad Baig