LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: For nearly two decades, Sumaira Morris helped keep patients alive in the dialysis ward of Lahore’s Services Hospital, but her own financial reality remained on life support. Belonging to a modest family, the 45-year-old nurse watched her household stability crumble when her husband developed a complex heart condition.
While Morris planned on finding an overseas job, the steep upfront expenses of international recruitment kept the better-paying employment abroad entirely out of her reach. It was only until a few months back that she learnt of a new initiative in Pakistan’s Punjab province that supported skilled individuals with overseas employment.
The ‘Parwaaz Card’ program, which helps finance all pre-departure expenses for skilled graduates who have secured foreign job offers but lack the capital to travel, provided initial training to Morris and helped her finalize departure to Riyadh to join a hospital where she has been offered 3,000 Saudi riyals ($798) a month, compared to her last salary of around 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($360).
“Even though nurses are highly talented and competent and want to go to Gulf countries or other nations, many of them faced major financial hurdles,” Morris, a mother of five, told Arab News.
“My Parwaaz Card has already been issued and I have received it. Through this, skilled people, not just in Pakistan but also abroad, whether in a Gulf country or anywhere else, will gain recognition.”
Historically, working-class Pakistanis who intended to move abroad were forced to borrow predatory loans from relatives or pay exorbitant, unregulated fees to overseas employment promoters. But Parwaaz Card bypasses this vulnerability by offering interest-free loans that can cover airline tickets, agency fees, medical certifications, and Saudi-mandated Takamol skill verification tests. It can even be used to buy personal items like clothing, according to Adnan Afzal Chattha, chairperson of the Chief Minister Punjab Task Force on Skills Development.
The Punjab administration has altered its training protocols and established state-of-the-art construction labs, heavy machinery operator facilities and specialized health care academies. To assure foreign employers of labor quality, the Punjab Board of Technical Education (PBTE) is digitizing its systems and partnering with European, British, and Australian bodies to dual-verify certifications.
Chattha said they plan to send around 45,000 skilled workers abroad in the next three years, while the first batch of 135 beneficiaries has already begun leaving the country, with more than 90 percent bound for Saudi Arabia, predominantly in the hospitality and construction sectors.
“We want to compliment His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision of 2030,” he said.
“We have 120 million youth who are below the age of 30. We want to give them those skills which are needed by foreign employers, which are needed by our Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s brothers.”
For decades, Islamabad’s economic survival has heavily relied on billions of dollars in remittances sent home by Pakistanis working in the Gulf, Europe and other parts of the world.
Launched in Jan. this year, the Parwaaz Card initiative represents a strategic shift in how the country’s most populous province aligns its vast human capital with the shifting economic realities of the Middle East.
As Saudi Arabia is reengineering its economy through trillion-dollar megaprojects and rapid modernization under its Vision 2030 framework, the Punjab government is aggressively updating its training infrastructure to match the Kingdom’s new labor standards.
Usama Farooq, a 24-year-old chef and former branch manager at a Lahore bakery chain, recently collected his Parwaaz Card and is now preparing to take up a culinary role in Saudi Arabia’s Dammam.
“This will bring massive changes to my life and growth to my career,” Farooq told Arab News.
“I availed this opportunity so I could support my family and grow personally.”
Families, who lagged in Pakistan’s tightening economic environment, say the program offers them a rare path to financial stability.
“The way the government is supporting this, it is doing a very good job, which provides support to families and everything else. So that we can improve the future of our children,” said Muhammad Rashid, Morris’s husband.
For Morris herself, the journey carries the prospect of both financial relief and spiritual significance.
“First of all, that destination is the land of Allah’s House,” she said. “I cannot manage many things with the salary I draw here [in Pakistan].
My salary there will effectively double, allowing me to support my family much better.”
