Fair play

Bar on jobs by ECP is not a solution to the problem that political appointments bring.

It is unfortunate that a group of party workers from the Pakistan Peoples Party recently took it upon themselves to ransack the offices of the Ministry of Water and Power in Islamabad because Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar did not show up to meet with them as they claimed he would. This enraged the workers who said they had been promised jobs by him and upon being told that they would not be offered jobs due to a ban on political appointments by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), they went on a rampage, destroying office property. It seems that violence and causing mayhem have now become a normal expression of protest. The workers have complained that the ministry has given 150 to 200 jobs to people outside the party in the last three years and none of the workers have been obliged. While this ‘grievance’ can be a cause of distress, nowhere should it have translated into destruction of property, least of all, the property of the organisation one wishes to be in the employment of.

Political appointments are the norm and nepotism is rampant in many government departments. It is an open secret that these appointments are often given to undeserving candidates. Many times they are illegal, as we saw when the Federal Public Service Commission declared as illegal the hiring process of hundreds of political appointees at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences earlier this month. The ECP’s decision to ban political appointments has been perceived to have been done to arrest any likelihood of pre-poll rigging, which could have resulted from the induction of thousands of people who have recently been posted in various positions by the ruling party. That is a wise move but not a solution to the problem that political appointments bring. They are more than just carrot and stick ploys or bribes; there needs to be a practical solution or a cap of sorts, otherwise, key positions will continue to be given on the basis of favouritism, nepotism and without merit.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2013.