LONDON: The chairperson of the United Kingdom's Advisory Council of the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC), Syed Tariq Mahmood-ul-Hassan, has said Prime Minister Imran Khan wishes to address the grievances of overseas Pakistanis on a priority basis and believes that there was a need to streamline affairs of the OPC for permanent and speedy solutions.

In an interview, Mahmood-ul-Hassan said the OPC Punjab is a statutory body that was created under the Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission Act 2014 and now a 32-member strong advisory board has been made in the UK under PM Imran's vision.

"I am thankful to Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, Governor Punjab Muhammad Sarwar and Vice Chairman OPC Punjab Mr Waseem Akhtar Ramay for taking a keen interest in the affairs of overseas Pakistanis. The UK chapter of OPC has members from all major cities and towns keeping in view the fact that more than 1.5 million Pakistanis lives in the UK and most of them come from Punjab and Azad Kashmir.

"The UK chapter of OPC comprises nominees of nine elected regional PTI Presidents. Since, the UK is hosting almost 1.5 million overseas Pakistanis, the membership of the UK chapter OPC was carefully nominated to ensure their easy access and availability to Pakistani community in UK."

He explained that tens of millions of rupees were spent each year to address the problems of overseas Pakistanis but overseas communities were unfortunately not aware of this. "We have to keep informed overseas Pakistani on where the money is being utilized and whether or not it’s being spent on them.

"The government of PTI is serious about spending the funds purely on the welfare of overseas Pakistanis."

In response to a question pertaining to the objection by a few leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the UK over the OPC's formation, the OPC chairperson said the board's newly-appointed members were upright people who wanted to work for the betterment of overseas Pakistan. He termed it unfortunate that the PTI's internal matters were brought to media forums, raising unreasonable objections.

"The new body has full support of the leadership and workers. This body is working towards resolving the issue that were ignored in previous governments. During the previous regimes, nothing much was done for overseas Pakistanis.

"We are taking this seriously because it’s Imran Khan’s vision to make overseas Pakistanis feel home and to bring them home. That can happen only when their problems are resolved. We don’t have a lot of time and we need to work on urgent basis," said Hassan.

He said overseas Pakistanis were close to PM Imran's heart. "Imran Khan becomes emotional when talking about overseas Pakistanis. He has always spoken highly of them. The overseas communities have always empowered Imran Khan and they are proud of him.

"His vision is aligned with the overseas communities. His heart beats with Pakistanis all over the world. The OPC will be working towards the fulfillment of his vision."

Hassan shared that most problems of overseas Pakistanis were related to land disputes and the criminality surrounding them. In most of those cases, the power of attorneys was used wrongly and the system was open to exploitation.

Thousands of British-Pakistanis have allowed their relatives to buy and sell lands; some have authorised relatives with power of attorneys while in other cases, real siblings fell out bitterly over property disputes. An overwhelming number of cases were about the land disputes where properties had been occupied by mafias, relatives or criminals backed by relatives, he said.

The OPC chair, who completed a Masters degree in law from Nottingham University, comes from a respectable family background in Punjab. He turned his mind towards charitable work after two of his sons — Zamam Ali Tariq, 13, and Muhammad Ali Tariq, nine — died in a horrific car crash on a motorway near Kamalia in Punjab.

The family was in Pakistan for holidays when their car's tyre burst and it hit a roadside block. "That tragedy taught me that this life has meaning if you live it for others and devote yourself to resolve the problems of common people. I remained devastated for a year and then I decided to do volunteer work in memory of my beloved sons.

"I am working in my role for a mission of serving humanity."



from The News International - Pakistan https://ift.tt/2ZznD74