Govt plans to fill vacant posts swiftly

Will ensure Balochistan’s representation in federal services to address development issues

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided to fill vacant posts immediately to give Balochistan due representation in federal services and overcome development challenges in the province. It has developed a comprehensive strategy to expedite the process and ensure compliance with Balochistan’s job quota in true letter and spirit. Under the strategy, the government has directed all ministries/ divisions to initiate the process of soliciting no-objection certificate from the Establishment Division within two weeks for filling the vacant positions with effect from the date of issuance of directives by the Establishment Division.

The ministries and divisions have been directed to advertise the vacancies immediately after the release of no-objection certificate by the Establishment Division. The recruitment process will be completed within a period of 120 days after the advertisement. Secretaries of the ministries/ divisions will ensure that the above time frame is complied with and they will submit a certificate to this effect on the completion of each of the above-mentioned steps. The cabinet has approved these measures to ensure Balochistan gets the job quota in federal services.

In a recent meeting, the cabinet was informed that the Prime Minister’s Office had noted that Balochistan’s representation in federal services was negligible. The PM Office asked that adequate representation with rectification of the past deficiencies in all federally raised/ controlled corporations, companies, autonomous bodies, attached departments, etc be ensured as per Article 38(9) of the Constitution of Pakistan. In order to overcome development issues in the province and acknowledge the rights of the people of Balochistan, a special development package titled “Aghaz-e-Haqooq-eBalochistan” was announced on September 24, 2009 in a joint session of parliament.

Under the package, it was decided to comply with the quota as per rules and regulations with particular reference to foreign services, autonomous bodies and other institutions, and to do away with deficiencies, if any. Keeping all this in view, all ministries/ divisions were requested to intimate the Establishment Division, on a quarterly basis, regarding recruitments under the 6% Balochistan quota with particular focus on the posts filled against the new positions identified after the recalculation of quota, and the number of posts under process, in all departments and other organisations under their administrative control.

A progress report was prepared on a quarterly basis and submitted to all the forums concerned including standing committees of the Senate and National Assembly. The objective of the report was to provide an overall picture of the progress towards quota compliance, highlighting the number of identified, filled and under-process posts against the Balochistan quota in the federal government. So far, 17,879 new posts have been identified, of which 11,756 have been filled through constant monitoring by the Establishment Division, whereas 6,123 posts are in the process of being filled. The report was based on the information received by the end of first quarter of 2022, with specific focus on the identification of vacant posts and status of the actions taken for filling those posts. It was observed that quota compliance was a continuous process.