But your whole argument is based on the premise, that the current set of politicians want the country to prosper. I am sorry but thats is far from the truth. The fact is that the people in power want a normal Pakistani to be worried about electricity, water , food every day he/she comes back from work so that he/she is too busy involved in his/her own things to give a damn about this country. A country that can build a nuclear bomb can easily provide its citizen with food and electricity because providing food and electricity is an easier thing to do. We need political leaders that are from our middle class who understand the issues a normal person faces and go ahead and tackle it with honesty.

Dear Asif,
Plz check this dawn news post which talks about the improvement in the home remittance situation.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/business/19-rs16bn-remittances-settled-under-pri-system-740-hh-09

Furthermore, I do agree with you partially; there will always exists 10-20% of the expatriates whose needs will only be met by the unofficial channels due to various reasons; however, like I mention in my article, major part of the problem can be addressed by improving the official product, where a lot of work is needed. I mean even the money changers can be brought under the PRI scheme. I.e. GoP has to be customer focused and solve the genuine issues. Patriotism can only take u so far…..

An excellent blog, but unfortunately I don’t think it will be major success. As you can imagine many of the Pakistani’s for example in the UK are dispersed throughout the country. Even within Bradford there are only two locations from where I can send money missing out large populations who live in other areas and nearby towns such as Keighley and Dewsbury. For the time being the unofficial methods are far more convenient for many people.

Plus the motivation when remitting money to Pakistan is not for the betterment of the country but for the betterment of ones family or village/ town. Plus there has been virtually no marketing push for the service, this blog is the first time I ever heard of such an intiative.

I am very glad to read about the real experience you have made in Pakistan.
I have decided since 2005 to move back to Pakistan once I have completed my study + specialization of 3 years. I am studying dentistry in Austria currently in 5th year ( from 6 years ) and planing to move back until 2015 or 2016…. And you have made me think and prepare my self better for life in Pakistan ( because I will live in Pakistan for sure )

the good news is that there are many people who came back and they r still living in Pakistan.

Thanks Athar for your valuable suggestions. I agree with both of them. However, point # 2 is not easy for me, although I do agree with it. The reason is behind each and every article there are many personal experiences both good and bad. In many ways, I’m trying to capture my true thinking, passion and views on these issues via these articles and portraying it to people. What I mean to say, I have not picked these topics just because they are hot, and then researched them, and then made a dispassionate posts out of it to provide a balanced view. For example, since I was an expatriate for 13 years myself and even today since I work in an export oriented industry, I have been dealing with foreign currency regulations, remittance issues via the banking channels, etc., for a very long time. This has been my personal topic of research for the last 18 years, and have been a big user myself of these systems for a very long time. So when I talk about these things, even if the arguments are logical, they have conviction, passion and in some cases anger behind them.

But anyway, thanks for the valuable suggestions. I will try to incorporate them in my next posts.