The continuous reports emerging from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are not mere updates about violations of migrant regulations; they are a stark indictment of Pakistan’s state character. That a large number of Pakistani citizens are found begging or engaged in criminal activities in Gulf countries is no accidental social anomaly—it is the natural outcome of decades of economic decay, political mismanagement, and moral erosion. This is precisely the consequence that, had the state addressed in time, would have spared the nation the humiliating international warnings it faces today.
The irony is bitter: the very country whose citizens are now seen with outstretched hands abroad has, for decades, stood before international institutions itself with a begging bowl. The IMF, the World Bank, Saudi Arabia, China—at every door, Pakistan’s economic policy has spoken not the language of self-reliance, but of perpetual supplication. Governments have changed, faces have changed, slogans have changed—but the fundamental nature of the economy has remained the same. Each administration promised to break the bowl, yet in practice, only its color was altered: at times it was called a ‘loan,’ at times a ‘bailout,’ at times a ‘deposit,’ dressed in an ostensibly respectable vocabulary.
When the state repeatedly depends on external assistance for its own survival, what lessons in dignity can it possibly teach its citizens at the lower rungs of society? The beggars in Gulf countries are not just individual failures—they reflect a collective mindset that has been nurtured for years: that in Pakistan, life does not advance through hard work, but through connections, shortcuts, or migration. To assume that so many people reached these countries merely by chance, despite strict visa regulations, is naïve at best. Behind this lies a deliberate system—a structured mafia—and a tacit complicity of state machinery.
The situation inside Pakistan is no less grim. Citizens are forced to buy drinking water, youth are crushed by unemployment, employees struggle on inadequate wages, and families sell property to survive. These are all indicators of a long-concealed economic collapse, hidden under the veneer of political slogans. When mere survival becomes a battle, begging and petty crime cease to be moral failings—they become tools of necessity. This explains the rise not only in begging but also in theft, online fraud, and other economic crimes, both domestically and abroad.
Viewing the warnings from Saudi Arabia and the UAE as part of a conspiracy is self-deception. They are, in reality, a mirror reflecting Pakistan’s true face. Unfortunately, the cost of a few organized gangs and failed policies is now being borne by the entire nation. If visa doors close, it will be the honest millions with no connection to these activities who will suffer the consequences.
The path out of this crisis lies not abroad, but within. Until the state frees itself from the mentality of begging, demanding dignity from its citizens is hypocrisy. The bowl must first fall from the hands of those in power before it can be removed from the hands of the people. Without economic self-reliance, accountable governance, and dignified employment, this national irony will only deepen—and history will record that the country whose governments begged the world saw its citizens begging across the globe.