Problems such as land disputes and police corruption were among those filed by British residents to authorities in Pakistan.

The Overseas Pakistanis Commission said it has received 561 complaints from the UK – it is the most from any single country reports the BBC.

Its chief paid a visit the UK recently to hear first hand about problems UK residents had encountered.

The second highest number of problems reported were from Saudi (394), followed by the United States (279) and United Arab Emirates (255).

The department is the brainchild of the Chief Minister of Punjab, Shabaz Sharif.

It is led by former London-based accountant Afzaal Bhatti and an American, Shaheen Khalid Butt, who said they empathise with the problems people abroad face when they are trying to resolve issues.

Speaking at the event, in Manchester, Commissioner of the Overseas Pakistanis Commission, Afzaal Bhatti, said, "Out of a total 2,350 cases, we've cleared 1,318.

"Most of these have been issues that are not being dealt with by the courts. Some were housing problems, where developers had not handed over homes that had been paid for, others were about land and also complaints about police corruption."

UK residents were invited to a meeting at the Sheridan Suite in Manchester and were given the opportunity to discuss their case directly with the man in charge.

One woman named as Saima says her dad got into a dispute with his brother over a house in Kharian, Gujrat. She told the BBC, "We allowed the family to stay there and when we asked to leave, they wouldn't. 

“They now say that it is their home. They even produced false papers but the house is registered in my dad's name. So we can prove it is ours, hopefully it will be sorted out very soon."

You can hear the full interviews here www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork