I am only one person so, unlike pcg, I won’t generalize that my experience applies to the entire single female population living outside of Pakistan. However, there is some truth to what pcg has shared with us.
My parents would have been okay with me finding a Pakistani guy on my own, but back in university and early career days, I wasn’t interested in romantic relationships. Later, my mom had some health issues and we as a family became less and less social overtime. I am also shy by nature, so even if I spotted someone interesting, I wouldn’t walk up to him and strike up a conversation.
So we opted for the matchmaking route. When we met the matchmaker, she was surprised that we are having difficulty finding anyone on our own. According to her, most of her clients are either divorced, above 30, average looking, or extremely picky. My mom explained that we don’t know anyone qualified in our social circle.
So, over the course of one year, she sent us a few profiles. Some of these didn’t meet our requirements (ex: very recently divorced, wanted a hijabi girl, etc) The rest we okayed and asked her to have them contact us.
-First was a pathan family (son = 28) and they wanted a very fair girl who was at least 5-6 years younger than him, as they believed the age diff was key to a successful marriage. I’m not that fair so I was disqualified.
-28, recent immigrant, family in Pak. This guy would have been okay, but when we talked, he told me he had plans to move to a neighbouring country in the future to be with his brother. I wasn’t interested in moving when the guy is not established here or there. Too risky and too many unknowns. He also made it quite clear that he believes a woman’s rightful place is at home so if I chose to continue working, it would be up to me to manage both worlds. He wouldn’t help out because he isn’t used to it and he doesn’t think it’s his job. I didn’t want to marry someone so inflexible and insensitive.
-33, Accountant (in USA), family in Pak. His mom called and after hearing about our family, she said they were actually interested in my older sis who is a doctor and they have always wanted a doctor bahu. Mom didn’t like their attitude and that was that
-34, doctor, recently immigrated, applied for medical residency in US with no luck so far, parents back home. This guy had zero personality. When my parents traveled 4.5 hours to meet him (as he didn’t have a car or a license), he took them to a McDonald’s where they could sit and talk over coffee. He didn’t offer to pay for the coffee. He didn’t know where good halal restaurants were in the area. And he kept boasting about how many farms his family owns back home. He is the only one in his family to go to uni. Parents were just not impressed overall. If someone travels this long to meet you and has to travel the same distance back, at least have the courtesy to offer them food and a quiet place to talk.
-29, engineer, lives not too far from where we live, a little on the healthy side, very avg looking. Born and raised in Saudi and never fasted a day in his life. Why, you ask? Bcuz motu needs to eat. When I asked him if he considers himself religious, he said he considers himself spiritual and he laughs at the hypocrisy of “religious” people. I was really turned off by his attitude that instead of acknowledging his own shortcomings, he started pointing fingers at others
-27, went to same uni as me, banker. First question his mom asked was about my skin color. Her own son is same skin colour as me but she wanted a gori bahu. Turns out we are also the same height, so that was another dealbreaker for his mom.
-31, studying to be a lawyer, tall, good looking. This one was a real mind numbing experience. Guy would say one thing and his mom would say a completely different thing. He was in no rush to get married while his mom suggested that she was already shopping for wedding dresses. He asked what my thoughts were about wearing hijab and quitting my job afterwards because he didn’t like the idea of his wife interacting with other guys. His mom said, not sure where he is getting that from as his own sister has plans to work, doesn’t wear hijab, is very modern etc. He didn’t like the idea of talking before nikah, so they wanted to do nikah after one meeting. That was too much for us so it didn’t work out.
So judging by all these profiles, I would say most people do have choices but they are either too picky or unlucky given their circumstances. I would have been married today if I had been willing to compromise on certain issues. However, I have no regrets. I would rather be single than to end up with a guy where our personalities clash, we don’t see eye to eye on major life decisions (like whether to raise religious+spiritual kids or just spiritual) or his family looks down on me for factors beyond my control.
Also, through this experience, we realized there were far more girls in the database than there were guys. So the matchmaker was sending something like 8 girls’ profiles to 1 guy (<-- what my mom found out by asking the guys’ moms). We could also sense that most guys were far more laid back and not as serious about settling down as opposed to the girls’ families. I don’t think this is China or India’s fault though 
Ok, enough work time wasted. I’m out.