Adding to sense of victimhood

Balochistan never fails to grab headlines — for all the wrong reasons. Around 4,000-plus jobs reserved for the province in 52 federal departments are lying unfilled. These posts are against a six per cent quota allotted to Balochistan, which translates into some 10,000 jobs. Of this, only 6,000-plus posts are occupied by people holding the province’s domicile. If a Balochistan MNA is to be believed, many federal government employees got their jobs after obtaining fake domiciles from Balochistan, implying the federal pool of employment may have a far less actual representation of Baloch people.

That Balochistan is often treated unfairly and denied many of its rights is a familiar refrain. This fresh revelation documenting the extent of injustice only goes to heighten the province’s sense of victimhood. With the private sector dormant in the province, and therefore, not offering job openings, the youth rely on the public sector for employment. Highlighting this fact, Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch recently rightly exhorted the federal government to expedite recruitment against the vacancies reserved for the province.

But a stumbling block in the hiring of people against these posts is the fact that the quota system, drawing its legitimacy under Article 27(1) of the Constitution, expired on August 14, 2013. The article needs to be amended to give the quota system a fresh lease of life. Senator Raza Rabbani wants the government to get the 23rd amendment bill passed by parliament quickly to fill the current legal vacuum. Passing this amendment, he says, will end the sense of deprivation among small provinces. But jobs are only one irritant for Balochistan. It has a full gamut of issues that need resolution. For this reason, the previous regime had crafted the Aaghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package. Senator Rabbani is bitter that the package now seems to be a forgotten chapter. The government must make sure this is not the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2014.

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