Responding to a question, he said that construction of Overseas Pakistanis concentration areas will provide quality education to the children of overseas Pakistanis. It has also been agreed to prepare pre-feasibility of various OPF public schools at Gujar Khan, Jhelum, Kharian, Gujrat, Khaniwal, Wah, Ghazi (NWFP) and Liari (Karachi). A decision, he said, has been taken to re-activate Overseas Pakistanis Pension Trust for providing coverage in terms of pension scheme to overseas Pakistanis working abroad. “This scheme would be launched at a large scale to mobilise the Overseas Pakistanis to subscribe to the policies according to their requirements.” The scheme, he said, would be a sound source of income to those Pakistanis who would return to Pakistan permanently. It was also decided to start payments to those policy holders whose policies have matured. To a question, he said that OPF Board has enhanced financial assistance of Rs50,000 to Rs1,00,000 for the destitute families and disabled Overseas Pakistanis to help overcome their immediate financial problems. He said it is 100 per cent increase in the financial assistance. He also informed that OPF sub-office would be set up at Multan to facilitate the Overseas Pakistanis of surrounding areas. This office would be helpful in resolving the problems of Overseas Pakistanis and their families in those areas. Haider also confirmed that Special Industrial Zone (SIZ) was expected to be set up at Lahore for which various formalities will soon be worked out with Punjab government. “In fact this is an old proposal which is now being revived for the benefits of the Overseas Pakistanis,” he said. Punjab government will offer a suitable land in the provincial capital to help establish the new SIZ aimed at attracting sizable investment by the expatriates. All the hassle free necessary infrastructure facilities were expected to be provided to the Overseas Pakistanis through a one window operation on the pattern of Dubai. The SIZ at Lahore was being finalised after a number of potential Overseas Pakistani assured to make new investment in Pakistan. They had also expressed willingness to separately invest in capital market, telecommunication, information technology, health, education, housing and agriculture sectors. The issue of establishing SIZ at Lahore was initially discussed during a two-day international conference which was participated by over 250 overseas Pakistanis on March 5 and 6 in Islamabad to help mobilise adequate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country. Responding to a question, he said that those overseas Pakistani who were looking forward to invest in Pakistan, and wanted to do joint ventures with their Pakistani counterparts had good inter-action with Pakistani officials and the private sector during the International conference held in March this year. It was also attended by professionals residing in foreign countries. It also provided the overseas Pakistani entrepreneurs opportunities of investment of interaction with officials of the federal and provincial governments as well as local businessmen for identifying areas of investment and for forming trade and joint venture partnership. He said since overseas Pakistanis could play an effective role in further strengthening the country’s economic by adequately investing in their country, the government would further consider to offer them more incentives and concessions. The objective of the conference was to attract investment from middle and high income groups of overseas Pakistanis by highlighting the opportunities and incentives available in Pakistan.