New Delhi: Pakistan is seeing a brain drain of an unprecedented scale. Over the past 24 months, it lost 5,000 doctors, 11,000 engineers, and 13,000 accountants, according to the country’s Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.
To add to that, throughout 2024 and 2025, repeated internet disruptions and the rollout of a national firewall fuelled what professionals describe as “digital friction”.
A report by Top10VPN Research estimated that Pakistan suffered the world’s highest economic losses from internet shutdowns in 2024 — $1.62 billion — after nearly 9,735 hours of disruptions affecting 82.9 million users. Freelancers, who make Pakistan the world’s fourth-largest gig workforce, reported a 70 per cent drop in work opportunities.
“As Pakistan moves into 2026, the ‘Exodus of 2025’ stands as the definitive marker of the era. Pakistan has become a ‘Brain Drain Economy’, surviving on the export of the very people it needs to build its future,” Express Tribune said in a report this week.
Meanwhile, in August, Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, gave a different spin to the brain drain. He called overseas migration a “brain gain” during a speech to expatriates in the United States.
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What are Pakistanis saying about it?
The immense scale of Pakistan’s migration has surprised even its citizens. According to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, 727,381 Pakistanis officially registered for overseas employment in 2024. That pace continued through 2025, with 687,246 people leaving by the end of November alone. As Pakistan enters 2026, the cumulative outflow over two years is expected to exceed 1.5 million, Express Tribune reported.
“While remittances offer short-term relief, they cannot replace the intellectual capital required for innovation. The digital nomad working abroad and the doctor practising overseas symbolise a nation that has globalised its talent but failed to domesticate its opportunities,” the report said.
As desperation to leave intensified, authorities tightened controls at airports. The Federal Investigation Agency told parliament that 66,154 passengers were offloaded in 2025, nearly double the previous year, citing document concerns and begging rackets. Complaints of arbitrary profiling followed, prompting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to intervene by ordering a review of offloading procedures.
Across social media, Pakistanis have a consensus: while the country is going nowhere, its people are going everywhere.
No educated, skilled human being “would want to live/remain in a ‘hard state’ where he/she can get abducted, tortured and possibly killed on mere difference of opinion, criticism of those being fed on tax payer expense,” X user Atif wrote.
Mustafa Sb, no educated, skilled human being would want to live/remain in a 'hard state' where he/she can get abducted, tortured and possibly ki**** on mere difference of opinion, criticism of those being fed on tax payer expense.
— MAK (@atif_isb) December 26, 2025
‘Pakistan’s brain drain isn’t a mystery. No industry, no research funding, no jobs. PhDs return to empty labs, professionals to closed markets. You can’t stop talent by humiliating people at airports, only by creating opportunity,” X user Sajid Sikander added.
Pakistan’s brain drain isn’t a mystery. No industry, no research funding, no jobs. PhDs return to empty labs, professionals to closed markets. You can’t stop talent by humiliating people at airports, only by creating opportunity. #BrainDrain #PakistanEconomy #HumanRights
— Sajid Sikander Ali (@SajidSikander) December 26, 2025
Others, however, toed Munir’s ‘brain gain’ line, talking up the “tons of millions of USD as remittances” and calling it a net positive.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)