IN a reassuring move, the Government has taken practical steps to adjust employees rendered surplus as a result of the ongoing process of rightsizing of the ministries, divisions and institutions.
These employees will be accommodated against vacant posts available and in this regard the Establishment Division has sought necessary information from all ministries and departments vis-à-vis the nature of the vacant posts, their grades and educational qualifications and experience required for them.
The rightsizing exercise involves merger and closure of ministries and public sector entities besides transfer of some functions of the federal government to the provinces in line with the spirit of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
It is apprehended that a large number of employees will be categorized as ‘surplus’ during this process of rationalisation of the size of the Government, raising questions about the final fate of such employees in the backdrop of reports appearing on and off in media about possibilities of forced retirement and golden handshake.
Creation of a surplus pool will surely go a long way in mitigating the woes of the affected employees.
This is because in a country like ours where the Government is considered the largest employer, forced retirement of thousands of people would have compounded the issue of unemployment.
However, creation of a surplus pool is not a perfect solution of the issue as it will take considerable time to accommodate such a large employees against vacant posts in other ministries and institutions as already over one hundred and fifty thousand vacant posts have been abolished, a number of others have been categorized as dying cadres and the remaining posts will probably require specialized qualifications and experience for the candidates.
There will be no problem in absorbing general cadres like administrative officers, accounts officers, assistants, stenographers, clerks, drivers and naib qasids in other departments but extreme care will have to be exercised in making choices against technical posts.
As has also been witnessed in the past, such pools are misused by influential employees to get appointments against lucrative posts and those without connections remain in pools for years.
We hope a merit-based procedure will be devised for adjusting affected employees against vacant posts in a really transparent manner to avoid the possibility of stuffing other ministries and departments with redundant people and benefit from the talent and experience of the surplus staff.
The process should not badly affect the overall working, efficiency and output of the bureaucracy.
