Pakistan sent $4.7 billion to India in remittances last year. India sent Pakistan over $2 billion remittances last year. No they did not. But this is what was fed to the audience earlier this week by electronic media. The numbers were bordering on the ridiculous for anyone to actually believe. And that it was supposedly a World Bank report that quoted this number, curiosity reached the peaks.
There was absolutely no way this was ever going to be true, and the SBP was quick to issue a release saying the statement is incorrect and misleading. Some research in the matter revealed the numbers being quoted are in fact taken straight from the World Bank's website, only that the World Bank does not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the same.
And it is not a recent revelation as well. It is all part of a World Bank led research working paper titled South-South Migration and Remittances done way back in 2007. The World Bank carries a comprehensive database on its portal based on the research findings of the said working paper. The working paper attempts to estimate home remittances for different countries, based on migrant stock data.
So, the billions of dollar supposedly flowing in and out of Pakistan are based on the number of migrants each country has in other. So the World Bank migrant stock database has around 1.3 million Pakistanis in India, and 1.1 million Indians in Pakistan. And on these numbers, the working paper arrives on the figure that it does.
Yes, it is only a working paper, but it was conducted under a concerned World Bank department designated for such studies. "They should know the difference between temporary and permanent migration. They have used the stock of people that migrated in 1947", said a source very close to remittance issues in Pakistan on condition of anonymity.
It was amusing to see leading politicians and even people heading serious think-tanks were on air blasting the government for an alleged World Bank report. Now that the SBP has refuted it, the topic must be shut. For all those still looking for some conspiracy, Pakistan's remittance data is believed to be one of the most sophisticated going around the world and is released on a monthly basis, adhering to the best global practices.
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