Exporting talent

PAKISTAN is one of the few countries that pushes its top talent to leave their motherland. This has been happening since independence but the year 2022 has witnessed the highest number in the country’s 75-year history. It is estimated that around 765,000 people left Pakistan in 2022, including 92,000 highly educated individuals such as doctors, engineers, computer scientists, business executives, and young people with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees. It is expected that more than a million young Pakistanis would fly out in the year 2023. A recent survey by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics shows that close to 40 per cent of Pakistanis wish to leave the country. One argument we often hear by those at the helm is that these people will send back remittances that will help Pakistan earn more foreign exchange. But at what cost? Do we realise the intellectual, economic, political and social vacuum this brain drain creates?