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Pak diaspora remitted $55 billion in five years

Pakistani expatriates sent back a whopping $55.01 billion in remittances to their families in their home country in the last five years, official figures show. Statistically, home remittances sent from expatriate Pakistanis have almost doubled in the last five years, according to documents placed by the Finance Ministry in Parliament.

The home remittances have registered a phenomenal increase at $13.92 billion in 2012-13 as compared to $7.81 billion in 2008-09.

The expatriate Pakistanis sent $7.81 billion in 2008-09 to their families, $8.90 billion in 2009-10, $11.20 billion in 2010-11, $13.18 billion in 2011-12 and $13.92 billion in 2012-13. Like India, Pakistan too has a large number of its nationals working abroad and the country is among the ten largest recipients of foreign remittances in the world.

Overseas Pakistanis comprise almost 3 per cent of the country's population, and either work in the Gulf countries, or are permanently settled in the West, the Middle East and Far East Asia.

Many overseas Pakistanis have dual nationalities and very strong links with Pakistan, even after having lived in their adopted countries for decades. With the new government in power, there is talk of creating a Shari'a-compliant Diaspora bond (or Diaspora Sukuk) to attract investment from overseas Pakistanis.
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