Due share: Lawmakers want legislation for southern Punjab job quota

Parliamentarians from the region favour separate share for north and south Punjab.

LAHORE:

Lawmakers from southern Punjab have called for legislation for allocating to the region the job quota that the finance minister had promised in his budget speech on Friday.

Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman had told the provincial assembly the government had decided to reserve a job quota for the people of southern Punjab and that legislation in that regard was on the cards. Initially, he said, the government would set up offices and examination centres of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) in Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur.

Commenting on the minister’s statement, Senator Mohsin Leghari, who hails from southern Punjab,  said providing a share in government jobs was essential for the empowerment of the people of southern Punjab.

“The Punjab Assembly should ensure that the job quota for the Punjab is allocated for two regions, north Punjab and south Punjab,” Leghari told The Express Tribune.

He said the Punjab was the only province that did not have regional quotas. He said he had submitted a bill in the Senate for reserving a quota under the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for south Punjab.

He said the people in south Punjab accounted for about 30 per cent of the Punjab population and 17 per cent of the country’s population but they only had a 7 per cent share in federal government jobs.

Of the 2,471 federal government officers from grade 17 to 22, 173 are from southern Punjab, he said.

Zones

Before 1998, the Punjab was divided into two zones based on the state of development there. Zone A represented developed areas and Zone B less-developed areas, including Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Attock, Mianwali and Bhakkar.

At present, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has five zones, Sindh two (rural and urban) and Balochistan has six zones. The FPSC job quota for all provinces, except the Punjab, is allocated on the basis of these zones.

“Dividing the Punjab into zones will help create more employment opportunities for the people in south Punjab,” PML-N National Assembly member Awais Khan Leghari said.

Leghari is also a member of the party’s committee tasked with empowering southern Punjab on administrative basis.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Punjab Assembly member Sardar Ali Raza Khan Dreshak demanded that the government make laws to introduce a separate job quota for southern Punjab.

He said he would move a bill in the assembly in this regard if the government did not act.

He said establishing PPSC offices in Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur was not enough. “People need jobs reserved for them through the FPSC and PPSC.”

PML-N Parliamentary Secretary on Information Rana Muhammad Arshad said the government would raise the issue in parliament.

“A separate job quota will be a big step towards ending the sense of deprivation among the people of southern Punjab,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2014.