While this is interesting, I think that what is also interesting is that the commentary tends to focus on the rich vs. poor element of this. Irrespective of country x, the same type of situation could, indeed, arise in a large country in which there exists a microcosm of this very study. I think that it is just easier to pull this apart because of geographic locations. (Check out the Tuskeegee incident...)

The term "Brain Drain" designates the National as well as International transfer of resources in the form of human capital i.e., the migration of relatively highly educated individuals from the developing to developed countries.

This phenomenon, in the terminology of development economics refers to the loss of high quality manpower, which was once productively employed in the native country. The last decade has seen an increase in the international mobility of highly skilled, talented individuals in response to the expansion of the knowledge economy accompanying globalization.

This international movement of human capital can be identified, in practice, as the movement of scientists, doctors, educationists, engineers, executives, and other professionals across frontiers. These are people with special talents, high skills and specialized knowledge.

The irony of international migration today is that many people who migrate legally from poor to richer lands are the ones that the Third World Countries can least afford to lose: the highly educated and skilled. Since the great majority of these migrants move on a permanent basis, this perverse brain drain not only represents loss of valuable human resources but could prove to be a serious constraint on the future economic progress of Third World nations.

Expenditure on education in Pakistan and other developed and developing countries: Research undertaken both in developed and developing countries reveals that for an increase in output, the quality of labour is more important than the quantity. A clear picture emerged if one looks at the experience of different countries. No country with educated and technically trained human resource is poor and no country with a predominantly illiterate, untrained human resource is rich.

In general the quality of human resource is much more critical in economic development than the availability of natural resources. Japan is a country, which has almost no mineral or energy resources but has high economic productivity because of highly literate, trained and an efficient workforce. Rapid progress of the East Asian countries is largely attributed to their excellent system of education.

Unfortunately, in Pakistan we have not paid due attention to the general education of the masses and as a result, the country is far behind than others of the region in education sector. According to official sources, the current literacy rate in Pakistan is 51.6 per cent where female literacy rate is 39 per cent while that of male is 64. It means that two women out of every three and one man out of every three men are illiterate.