Poll shows keen desire to emigrate

More than two-thirds of Pakistan’s adult population want to go abroad to work, and half that number do not want to return, the Pakistani daily ‘News’ reported on Saturday, citing survey results from the polling group Gallup (Pakistan). Rising pessimism about the economy over the past 15 years was the main factor for the desire to leave, indicating growing dissatisfaction with the way the country was developing, according to the report. The survey results fitted in with the widely-held view that there had been a brain drain in Pakistan over the past decade, and that that trend would only continue, the report said. It was not only qualified professional and university graduates who wanted to leave, but also semi-skilled or unskilled workers, the survey results stated. In 1986, a survey by Gallup (Pakistan) reported that 72 percent of those polled had agreed with the statement: “Pakistan will make tremendous progress in the next 10 years.”