Pakistani expatriates sent back a whopping USD 55.01 billion in remittances to their families in their home country in the last five years, official figures show.
Statistically, home remittances sent from expatriate Pakistanis have almost doubled in the last five years, according to documents placed by the Finance Ministry in Parliament.
The home remittances have registered a phenomenal increase at USD 13.92 billion in 2012-13 as compared to USD 7.81 billion in 2008-09.
The expatriate Pakistanis sent USD 7.81 billion in 2008-09 to their families, USD 8.90 billion in 2009-10, USD 11.20 billion in 2010-11, USD 13.18 billion in 2011-12 and USD 13.92 billion in 2012-13.
Like India, Pakistan also has a large number of its nationals working abroad and the country is among the ten largest recipients of foreign remittances in the world.
Overseas Pakistanis comprise almost 3 per cent of the country's population, and either work in the Gulf countries, or are permanently settled in the West, the Middle East and Far East Asia.
Many overseas Pakistanis have dual nationalities and maintain very strong links with Pakistan, even after having lived in their adopted countries for decades.
With the new government in power after a smooth transition, there is talk of creating a Shari'a-compliant Diaspora bond (or Diaspora Sukuk) to attract investment from overseas Pakistanis.
The capital, Islamabad, has numerous foreign exchange centres and at any given time of the day, one can find local Pakistanis exchanging foreign currency.
