ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development has called for performance audit of Community Welfare Attachés (CWAs) while noting with concern that no systematic performance audit of CWAs is currently in place, despite the scale of overseas deployment and welfare responsibilities.
The committee met with Syed Rafiullah in the chair here at the Parliament House to review compliance with its earlier recommendations and to receive briefings from CWAs posted in the Gulf region.
The committee recommended the ministry to link CWA performance with formal performance audits and qualitative reviews, frame clear rules governing extensions, review repatriation mechanisms for deceased workers, consolidate and improve the quality of briefings submitted to the committee and provide complete data on complaints received against CWAs.
While acknowledging ongoing facilitation efforts for overseas Pakistanis, the committee expressed serious dissatisfaction over incomplete responses, weak performance evaluation frameworks and the overall quality of briefings presented to the committee.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) gave a briefing on the establishment of a “refusal to departure cell,” currently under review by the CCLC. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been developed for pre-departure facilitation desks at airports to ensure departing citizens are heard.
The committee directed that advertisements regarding these desks be placed at immigration counters in Urdu so that travelers who feel they were wrongly offloaded can seek immediate redressal.
During the discussion relating to overseas welfare and deployment, the committee expressed concern that several agenda questions had not been adequately addressed, prompting the chair to question the ministry on lack of preparedness. The ministry sought additional time, citing constraints in conducting qualitative reviews and performance audits of CWAs, and committed to undertaking a structured performance audit.
The committee noted with concern that no systematic performance audit of CWAs is currently in place, despite the scale of overseas deployment and welfare responsibilities.
Briefings by CWAs from the Gulf region highlighted deployment figures, welfare facilitation, jail visits and labour market conditions. However, the committee raised pointed questions regarding absence of CWAs from key stations, continuation of officers beyond tenure without a defined legal framework and lack of consolidated timelines for postings and extensions.
Comparisons with regional countries were also discussed, with the chair observing that Pakistan’s limited CWA presence stands in sharp contrast to the scale of its overseas workforce. In the briefing relating to Bahrain, the committee examined labour agreements, skill collaboration initiatives and challenges arising from localisation policies.
