By Azmat Haroon
Doha: An increasing number of young Pakistanis are finding it hard to find jobs in Qatar, with many alleging discrimination while applying for jobs.
Pakistanis with professional degrees, most of whom did not want to be identified, told this newspaper that they see ‘no future’ for themselves here after having gone through the job-hunt for as long as two years.
Despite being born and raised in Qatar, many said they may have to leave the country soon because the sponsorship system does not allow them to continue living here unless a company hires them and offers them a work visa.
According to law, any man above 25 cannot be under his father’s sponsorship.
Work visas for Pakistanis, on the other hand, cost QR60,000 in the black market here, making it one of the most expensive ‘free visas’ for any nationality.
Some claim that Pakistanis demand higher salaries compared with others, which is why even Pakistani companies do not want to hire them. A senior official of a Pakistani construction and contracting company, who requested anonymity, said that even their firm was not very keen to employ Pakistanis because people with similar qualifications among other nationalities could be hired at lower salaries.
According to official estimates, there are approximately 95,000 to 100,000 Pakistanis here, of which some 15 to 25 percent live with their families.
There is no official data available on how many of them are employed, an official of the Pakistan embassy said.
Sohail Ismail sat through innumerable interviews before landing a job recently.
He said a majority of Pakistanis born and schooled in Qatar seek admissions in universities in other countries because they cannot afford higher education here.
“Once they come back to their families after completing a bachelor or masters level degree, they do not find jobs. Companies tell them they have no experience.”
Ismail said that this was, in fact, not the real reason for not hiring Pakistanis because he often saw others being offered higher salary packages even without any experience.
Truth was, in most cases, CVs of Pakistanis didn’t even reach the right people in most organisations.
“It really just depends on the top management of the organisation. If it’s an Egyptian management, you will see a push to hire Egyptians, if it’s an Indian management, you will find a large majority of Indians working in the organisation,” Ismail said.
He said, unfortunately, there are a very few Pakistanis on managerial positions in Qatar.
Some also say there is discrimination, which was evident from job advertisements in newspapers that specified the nationality of employees companies sought. Incidentally, such advertisements never specify jobs for Pakistanis.
Asked about the company policy on hiring individuals, an official from a prominent bank seeking anonymity said: “Banks now prefer to hire people from abroad, which is why they give contracts to recruitment firms. It’s a fact that people hired locally do not have the required qualification.”
He also said that because of a big push for Qatarisation in banks, many expatriate communities were naturally affected.
Maham Khalid, a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar (VCU-Q), said she did not leave a stone unturned during her hunt for a job in Qatar.
“I applied for more than a dozen jobs, sat through several interviews, apart from the walk-in ones, but I never got a response from anywhere,” Khalid said, adding that she had high expectations after studying at the Education City.
After over a year’s struggle, Khalid landed in a job with an architectural firm.
“I was the first Pakistani employed by this firm in the last 15 years,” she said.
Another Pakistani girl, a graduate of Stenden University Qatar, who did not want to be identified, said she was considering applying for a Masters degree because even after a year, she still had no job in sight.
For hundreds of young Pakistani men, the only reasonable option left was to join the police or army.
“You only need to be Qatar-born and know some Arabic. Pakistanis can still very easily find a job in one of the security forces departments here,” Ruman Rathore said.
