UK to offer new immigration system for Pakistan’s ‘brightest and best’

ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom is delivering a new immigration system that offers clear opportunities to the “brightest and best” in Pakistan to study, work and live in the UK, British Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft said on Wednesday.
Rycroft, the most senior official in the UK Home Office, is currently visiting Pakistan on a two-day tour to discuss shared priorities and future cooperation to affirm Pakistan-UK ties.
Pakistan and UK have a long and shared history that is bolstered by the 1.6 million Pakistani diaspora in the UK, which is at the heart of the relationship between the two countries.
It is these people-to-people ties that make Pakistan a particularly important partner for the UK, according to the UK Home Office.
“During his visit, he (Rycroft) talked about the UK Home Office’s new immigration system that will level the global playing field to those wishing to come to the UK,” it said in a statement.
“Pakistani students will benefit from new graduate routes, providing an excellent opportunity for Pakistani students to enter into skilled roles in the UK job market.”
The permanent secretary took part in a range of engagements and meetings at the Pakistani Ministry of Interior and associated agencies to discuss challenges affecting operational cooperation and identify areas of mutual interest to expand collaboration.
Highlighting the ground-breaking collaboration between Metropolitan Police and Pakistani authorities that resulted in getting justice for the murder of Dr. Imran Farooq, Matthew Rycroft set out his desire to work much closer with the Pakistani government to tackle shared threats and bring criminals to justice.
Farooq, who had been affiliated with Pakistan’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party, had been living in London in a self-imposed exile since 1999. He was stabbed to death outside his home in North London in September 2010.
In June 2020, an Islamabad court convicted three men, Khalid Shamim, Syed Mohsin Ali and Moazzam Ali, of the murder and handed them life imprisonment.
On the recent developments in Afghanistan, the UK Home Office said, Rycroft discussed a host of security issues, including narcotics smuggling, human trafficking and illicit finance.
This is the second visit of a senior British official to Pakistan in the last three months.
Former Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab visited Islamabad in early September and met with senior Pakistani leaders, including Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

UK to offer new immigration system for Pakistan’s ‘brightest and best’