Pakistan to offer permanent residency to wealthy Afghans, Chinese to boost weak economy

The Pakistan government on Friday announced that it has decided to offer permanent residency to foreign nationals in a bid to attract investment and boost its flagging economy and national growth. Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry through an overnight tweet announced that the new scheme, which he said would attract rich Afghans, Chinese, Sikhs living in Canada and the USA. The new scheme is in line with the new National Security Policy, which was formally launched by PM Imran Khan on Friday. In line with new Nat Security policy through which Pak declared GeoEconomics as core of its Nat security doctrine,Government has decided to allow Permanent residency scheme for foreign nationals,new policy allows foreigners to get permanent resident status in lieu of investment — Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 14, 2022 The Imran Khan-led government believes that it will fetch billions of dollars of foreign investment by giving Pakistani nationality and proprietary rights to foreign investors. The Express Tribune reported that Chaudhry has stated that one of the purposes of opening the PR scheme was to attract rich Afghans, who were moving to Turkey, Malaysia and some other countries following the fall of Kabul last August. “They needed to be incentivised,” Chaudhry said. Additionally, the Pakistan minister added that the scheme targets Sikhs living in Canada and the US, who were willing to invest in religious sites, especially in Kartarpur Corridor but had no option to do so. Chaudhry said that the third objective of the scheme was to incentivise Chinese nationals, who wish to move or establish industrial units in Pakistan. “It’s a historic step… for the first time in the history of Pakistan foreigners are being allowed to invest in the real estate sector,” he said. Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy Meanwhile, Imran Khan on Friday launched the country’s first-ever National Security Policy, which articulates a citizen-centric framework, placing economic security at its core. While unveiling the policy, the Pakistan PM had stated that for the first time, the National Security Division has developed a consensus document that defines national security in a proper way. According to reports, the main themes of the National Security Policy are national cohesion, securing an economic future, defence and territorial integrity, internal security, foreign policy in a changing world and human security. "The policy puts economic security at the core. A stronger economy would create additional resources which would then be distributed to further bolster military and human security,” National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf said. When asked about the message it sends to India, Yusuf said: “it tells India to do the right thing and jump on the bandwagon to benefit from regional connectivity to uplift our peoples. It also tells India, if you don't want to do the right thing, it will be a loss to the entire region, but most of all India.” Image: PTI

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Pakistan to offer permanent residency to wealthy Afghans, Chinese to boost weak economy

Pakistan announced that it has decided to offer permanent residency to foreign nationals in a bid to attract investment and boost its flagging economy.

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