400 posts the level BS-16 and above are lying vacant in Gilgit-Baltistan.
GILGIT: I am an unemployed but educated young man from Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and wish to bring to the notice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a festering issue, that of the stealing of government jobs in G-B.
Let me state that we, the people of G-B, are indebted to successive federal governments which created thousands of jobs for our area in the recent past to be filled on merit. These became a ray of hope for the educated youth of the region, particularly when there is no industrial base or private sector in G-B.
Nevertheless, these vacant posts, particularly of the level BS-16 and above, have been held hostage in the hands of local politicians and a section of the local judiciary, which have established a nexus for obvious reasons, thereby depriving the deserving educated youth of an opportunity of being selected for these posts. The incumbent chief secretary G-B, Muhammad Younus Dagha, has diagnosed the issue and has begun to take firm action against the job mafia by forming a team of upright officers to handle this issue to its logical end but local politicians and a section of the regional judiciary are adamant at absorbing the so-called contractual incumbents against 400 vacant posts falling in BS-16 and above.
Nobody knows as to how the so-called contractual employees managed to occupy these posts, whereas as per policy, candidates for all such vacant posts should go to the Federal Public Service Commission, Islamabad for proper induction on merit. However, that is not allowed to happen.
Vested interests have also been bolstering the agenda of the job mafia for retrieving a share of the jobs, which is very unfortunate in a poverty-stricken region with a considerable number of educated youth. The job mafia has extended its tentacles and penetrated into every sphere of life, including into sectarian outfits, politics and the judiciary. The nexus has also manipulated sections of the local press to forestall the process of investigation and merit-based recruitments into government departments of G-B.
The whole situation is grim as jobs are sold out with different price tags and then politicians, clerics and pressure groups are unleashed to promote the agenda of the job mafia as the prevailing sectarian miasma in G-B is being exploited and every move aimed at bringing transparency is being seen as a conspiracy against one sect or the other.
The teams set up by the chief secretary G-B has been making efforts to formulate service rules for filling these vacant posts through the FPSC in Islamabad. These appointments have been held in abeyance for the last 10 years but the big wigs in the G-B government have been creating hurdles to this process and are reportedly pressuring the FPSC into sabotaging the chief secretary’s efforts. It is the first time in the history of G-B that the bureaucracy, under the leadership of the chief secretary, is striving to foster and uphold merit in job recruitments and also has taken up cudgels to clear away the mess created by the political government in the past four years. The summaries with regard to service rules/recruitments through the FPSC are being delayed or hushed up to slow down the process.
Therefore, I humbly request the prime minister to intervene in the matter and instruct the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and G-B and the G-B government to expedite the process of recruitment through the FPSC to help the jobless educated youth get jobs.
Asgher Ali Mehmud
Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
