Jobs in Balochistan

Given how widespread unemployment problem in Balochistan is, federal government should do all it can to provide jobs.


Editorial March 05, 2014
A report says that thousands of posts under the AHBP are lying unfilled and that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has declined to fill them because ‘there is a ban on recruitment’. PHOTO: FILE

Balochistan’s peculiar circumstances require special care and treatment. Given the sense of victimhood and widespread unemployment, federal support to mitigate its sufferings is of paramount importance. Of the many initiatives launched in the past to provide succour to the province, the one approved unanimously by parliament on November 23, 2009 stands out.

The Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package (AHBP) had, among other things, stipulated the creation of 5,000 jobs for the province immediately. This was in addition to the federal government’s fresh undertaking to implement the quota for the province for employment in government. More than four years down the line, we get to listen that the promise has not been kept — at least, not to the full. A report in this paper says that thousands of posts under the AHBP are lying unfilled and that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has declined to fill them because ‘there is a ban on recruitment’.

This is a disturbing state of affairs and is bound to heighten the grievances the province’s people already nurse. Given how widespread the unemployment problem in Balochistan is, the federal government should do all it can to provide jobs and assuage the province’s cause of distress. The AHBP had also stipulated other measures to tackle the problem of joblessness. For instance, it had called for the Overseas Employment Foundation to facilitate the recruitment of labour for employment abroad. Besides, it had proposed that the local people living along the coast who meet the criteria should be given jobs in the Coast Guards. Although we don’t know what exactly happened of these suggestions, our hunch is that they might have met the similar fate as other promises. The Nawaz government’s allies are now in charge of the province, with the PML-N itself holding a significant share in the coalition, which is all the more reason that it turn its attention to the province. If it ends up satisfying the populace, it will have brightened its chances of another electoral triumph in the province.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2014.

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COMMENTS (1)

Humayun | 10 years ago | Reply

Apart from job creation within Balochistan, goverment should offer job / work opportunities and eduction opportunities with scholorship to Balochistanis in other provinces particularly Punjab. This might also help a bit in brighging gaps between ethniciiteis.

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