Page 66 - CMA Journal (May-June 2025)

Focus Section

In Pakistan, a serious mismatch prevails between the jobs perks, low salaries, poor working conditions, and lack of
demanded and the supply of skilled manpower. Pakistan career growth opportunities. This withdrawal impacts
is grappling with this issue in every sector, including the quality of the healthcare sector, particularly in rural
engineering, agriculture, healthcare, education, and areas, and hinders national development.
emerging fields like IT and finance. Especially in technical
April 15, 2023, South Asia Investor quoted an incident
sectors, the lack of local talent forces companies to
when two doctors, Dr. Najam and Dr. Mukherjee,
outsource expensive expertise.
responded to an emergency when US Ambassador
There was a time in Pakistan when the construction Richard Holbrooke suffered a massive heart attack in
sector was booming, and there was an acute shortage of 2010. Dr. Najam, a graduate of King Edward Medical
mid-level technical workers, which created delays in College in Lahore, was the chief heart surgeon at George
project completion and increased costs. It signifies the Washington University Hospital at the time, and Dr.
need for skill development programs and technical Monica Mukherjee, a junior cardiologist at the hospital,
vocational programs. According to a blog by The assisted in the operating theater.
University of Faisalabad, to train skilled people, Pakistan
has only 540 vocational institutes that provide mid-level
technical education, and most of these institutes are
inadequately equipped to impart relevant skills.

“Hiring the right talent in Pakistan is one of the biggest
challenges businesses face today. With years of insight into
the local job market and hiring trends, it is clear that finding
skilled, reliable employees is not easy. From a shortage of
qualified candidates to interview no-shows and delayed
hiring processes — these problems can seriously affect
productivity and business growth.” – (April 10, 2025, HR
Business Solution).
The lack of a continuous professional training culture is
also prevalent, which needs to be addressed, as it
enhances knowledge, skills, and attitude in the relevant
domain. Although there are organizations in different
sectors working in this domain, it is not sufficient to cater
to the demand.
To ensure high economic growth, Pakistan needs healthy,
resilient, and talented human resources for more The migration results in the receipt of remittances, which
productive outcomes in every sector of the country, also helps in addressing the current account deficit. The
whether it is IT, banking and financial institutions, inflow of overseas workers’ remittances into Pakistan
textiles, agriculture, etc. stood at $3.7 billion in May 2025, according to data from
the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released.
3) Brain Drain
Pakistan is a developing country, Remittance inflow since Jan 2024
and generally, developing
countries face the challenge of
“brain drain”—the migration of
highly trained or skilled
professionals due to push and
pull factors. Citizens face a
subpar standard of living, and
talented human capital receives
non-competitive wages, which
prompts them to migrate.
A case in point is doctors. Brain
drain among doctors in Pakistan
is an extremely critical issue,
driven by various factors like low
64 ICMA’s Chartered Management Accountant, May-June 2025