Thousands of Pakistanis seekings jobs in UAE flock to Karachi careers fair

Pakistani job seekers descend on a careers fair, in Karachi, sponsored by the Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Pakistan Engineering Council. Photo Courtesy-Pakistan Engineering Council.

ABU DHABI // The UAE remains a top employment draw for Pakistanis, as evidenced by the thousands of job seekers who attended a careers fair in Karachi last week.

About 10,000 engineers and technicians registered at the event, which was organised by the Pakistan embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Pakistan Engineering Council (Pec).

The embassy said it was the first job fair organised by a Pakistani mission overseas to recruit people for its host country.

“Given the growing demand for engineers in the UAE, due to its massive infrastructure projects, the Pakistan mission in Abu Dhabi approached top engineering companies involved in various disciplines of infrastructure development,” said Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s ambassador in the UAE.

About 20 UAE companies sent human resources managers to interview potential candidates.

“The mission got a tremendous response from these companies,” Mr Durrani said.

About 8,000 people were selected for interviews, with 350 getting job offers on the day. In the oil-drilling sector, 172 engineers received jobs.

“Since it was not possible to interview all the candidates in one day, the selectors decided to take back the CVs of more than 4,000 engineers to the UAE for further scrutiny,” Mr Durrani said.

“It is hoped that about 500 more engineers would be selected out of these.”

Habib Ahmed, the commercial attache at the Pakistan embassy in the UAE and the UAE representative of Pec, said the fair also aimed to cut out employment agents from the hiring process. Many have questionable reputations and charge exorbitant fees, up to Dh30,000, to arrange a job.

“With the Dubai Expo 2020 and the Economic Vision 2030 of Abu Dhabi, huge development work is taking place in the region and there is a high demand for engineers and technicians,” Mr Ahmed said. “Hence, we have been able to provide a quick and efficient solution to meet this demand.”

Pec chairman Abdul Qadir Shah said: “Even if only 1,000 engineers get a job through this job fair, it would mean an incredible increase in the remittances sent to our home country.”

Zaheer Awan, managing director of a drilling equipment provider, DrillTekh, said his company had received more than 1,000 CVs and recruited about 200 staff during the fair.

“We found some well-qualified, highly professional, dedicated Pakistani engineers, some with management skills,” he said.

Among the other companies taking part were General Electric, Dolphin Energy, Al Masaood Oil and Gas, National Drilling Company, Emaar and Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company.