Around a million Pakistanis left the country for better work opportunities in 2015 alone, a Senate panel was told on Thursday.Senate Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was informed on Thursday that since 1971, over 9 million Pakistanis have emigrated through the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.This number peaked in 2015 when 946,571Pakistanis moved to other countries. Since 2013, over 2.32m Pakistanis have left the country for work. Among these six per cent proceeded to Gulf Cooperation Council countries, about one per cent moved to the European Union and other developed countries, three per cent to Malaysia, Libya, South Korea etc.Giving details, Federal Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Khizar Hayat Khan pointed out how Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa made up just 12 per cent of Pakistan’s entire population at home, but it comprises 26 per cent of Pakistanis working abroad.Similarly, as many as 0.5 million people hailing from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) are working abroad. He added that these people remit large sums of money home but facilities in their native areas does not reflect this.He admitted that while there was a culture of corruption in the system, the only way to do away with it was to computerise the system of applications.Senator Lt General (retd) Abdul Qayyum pointed towards the rampant corruption in recruiting protectors, calling for their background checks and rigorous training and grooming.The panel called for setting up additional offices of Protectorates of Emigrants after Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Director General Rana Matloob informed them that there were just seven protectorate offices in the country.Published in The Express Tribune, May 6, 2016.