PM approves quota in trade officers posts for expatriates

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Tuesday approved the reservation of 20 percent quota for overseas Pakistanis for the posts of trade officers in Pakistan’s missions abroad.

The decision was taken during a meeting held at the Prime Minister Office regarding reforms in posting of trade officers abroad.

The prime minister had directed the Ministry of Commerce to revamp the entire system of postings of trade officers who are posted abroad to promote trade and commercial interests of the country. The new policy approved by the prime minister focuses on transparent and merit-based selection of the trade officers, market diversification, involvement of Pakistani diaspora, rationalizing the expenditure, broad-based monitoring and performance evaluation and automation of the processes.

To effectively promote commercial interests of the country especially in the emerging markets and various regions across the globe, trade clusters have been focused in the new policy to ensure optimum utilization and maximum outreach of the trade officers.

The prime minister was informed that in order to ensure broad-based and real-time monitoring of the performance of the trade officers, the entire evaluation process had been based on information technology.

Secretary Commerce Mohammad Younus Dagha also briefed the prime minister about National Trade Data Analytics System which was being developed by the ministry. The National Trade Data Analytics System with its comprehensive database of trade statistics, exporters and importers directory, product database and trade lead insight would help in better evaluation and promotion of trade interests of the country.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister also chaired a meeting and reviewed progress on energy-related projects including petroleum and gas.

Also, Imran Khan welcoming the statement of Chief Justice of Pakistan on punishing those who give false testimony Tuesday said that journey towards truth was a `journey towards Naya Pakistan’.

“I welcome CJ’s statement on punishing those who give false testimony. Journey towards truth is a journey towards Naya Pakistan”, the Prime Minister said in a tweet posted on his social media handle. “Nations become great because they have a higher value system. Muslim civilizations’ foundation was State of Medina with truthfulness as the core value”, he added in the tweet.