IN a move that would surely be welcomed by people of the province, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has announced to fill about one hundred thousand vacancies in different ministries and departments.
According to Special Assistant to Punjab Chief Minister Hassan Khawar, these include 33,000 in the education department, higher education 2900, college teachers’ interns 3500, health department 4100 and 12,000 in police department besides 4800 posts of patwaris.
In countries like Pakistan with limited economic activities and low level of industrialization, the Government is considered as the major source of provision of jobs to the people but unfortunately either ban is maintained on fresh recruitment on the plea of curtailing expenditure or selection is done in a non-transparent manner creating sense of deprivation and resentment among people.
Apart from the ordinary work force, our educational institutions are producing thousands of highly qualified youth who find no avenues for proper career due to sluggish economy and continuous ban on recruitment.
Apart from the issue of provision of jobs to the unemployed youth, the ban and the sifarish culture has resulted in degeneration of service delivery.
Education, health and police departments have direct relevance for the people but non-recruitment against vacant posts for years understandably affects their performance.
Most of the posts fell vacant due to retirement and death and timely recruitment against such posts is vital for grooming of the fresh inductees so that they shoulder their responsibilities effectively.
In this backdrop, the decision of the Chief Minister Punjab to fill the vacant posts is appreciable but its benefits to the system would accrue only if the entire process is completed in a highly transparent manner.
Luckily, Punjab has a decent tradition of inducting teachers in a fair and transparent process and this can be replicated in other departments as well.
It is, of course, difficult for the political governments to ignore their workers but selection on considerations other than merit is not only injustice to the capable hands but also has implications for quality of service.
