No new recruitment: Employment prospect of civilians hangs in the balance in Sindh

Despite receiving ample applications, govt is not calling candidates for interviews, tests

KARACHI: Whether the Pakistan Peoples Party government is unable to accommodate millions of unemployed people with few thousand jobs available in government departments or it is being careful because of the National Accountability Bureau's activities against irregularities.

Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah had lifted the ban on fresh recruitment in September last year. Following the CM's approval, the services and general administration department directed all the government departments to advertise posts lying vacant in their respective departments and invite applications.

Shah had also sought the number of vacant posts in different departments. According to the figures submitted to the CM by the services and general administration department, some 1,016 posts were vacant in the board of revenue department, 26,789 in the education department, 1,273 in agriculture, 215 in excise, 341 in enquiries and anti-corruption, 415 in energy, 448 in food, 213 in forest and wildlife, 6,337 in health, 1,656 in irrigation and 1,975 in labour departments.

Most of the government departments, except the education department, had started the recruitment process by advertising their vacancies from October and November, 2016 to February this year.

Although every department received millions of applications in response to their advertisements in the local newspapers, most of the departments, except the Sindh police, failed to initiate the process for recruitments. Millions of people are still waiting for their interview and written test calls.

"I had submitted applications for different vacancies in at least seven departments between January and February this year, but have yet to receive any call for an interview or test from any of the departments," shared Shahida Parveen, who belongs to Larkana. According to her, she applied for different posts in the industries, board of revenue, food, livestock and other departments.



Ironically, instead of furthering the recruitment process, many departments, including the excise and taxation and irrigation departments, have started getting rid of the applications submitted by candidates. Both these departments have thrown out applications, along with testimonials of the candidates, outside their offices situated in Tughlaq House. Thousands of applications were seen in gunny bags outside the office building.

Excise and Taxation Secretary Abdul Haleem Shaikh failed to give a reason for throwing out these applications despite being approached twice. However, one of his staff members unofficially said that they have received instructions to destroy these applications. "These papers are now useless for us," he said.

Most of the departments are also reluctant to share the exact number of applications they have received. However, keeping in view a latest advertisement of the Special Security Unit (SSU) of the Sindh police, the numbers of applications are expected to be in millions.



The SSU authorities said that over 140,000 applications were received against 1,300 vacant posts which SSU had advertised for.

During his budget speech in June, Shah had announced that his government would provide at least 50,000 fresh jobs in different government departments during the current financial year.

Surprisingly, the finance department advised the CM not to make fresh recruitments due to financial constraints. The CM received this recommendation in a summary sent to him by Finance Secretary Syed Hassan Naqvi.

The prevailing uncertainty in the recruitment process for government jobs is causing extreme disappointment among candidates who have applied for different posts.