QUETTA: Several thousand engineers, doctors, graduates and post-graduates are regularly coming out of universities and colleges in Balochistan and flooding the province's job market. But few can hope for decent jobs compatible with their qualifications.

The main reason is the province's economic backwardness and a practically non-existent industrial base or development infrastructure. The provincial government has been in a state of perennial financial crisis for the past many years. It has never implemented its annual development programmes (ADP) for want of resources.

The province generates revenue that is only Rs1 billion or a little more and it has to depend on federal transfers of funds and sharing of resources from the divisible pool created by the National Finance Commission.

The inflow of foreign funds or direct foreign investment is almost zero in Balochistan. Interestingly, debt servicing costs Balochistan around Rs6 billion, draining its resources further at the cost of economic development. The non-development expenditure is around Rs20 billion and the development outlay is around Rs8.5 billion.

There are two main universities in Balochistan, the University of Balochistan and the University of Engineering and Technology, Khuzdar, besides the Bolan Media College. All the three premier educational institutions are producing around 2,000 qualified post-graduates and graduates in different fields and trades every year.

There are scores of private colleges also producing graduates and technocrats, increasing the army of the jobless. The provincial government has created 2,236 posts in the police department and about 129 posts in other departments for the current fiscal year. Government departments, both provincial and federal, have 4,000 temporary vacancies in the Gwadar Port, Coastal Highway and other projects.

The job quota of Balochistan was fixed at 3.5 per cent long ago. It has yet to be changed after census of 5.1 per cent conducted in March 1998.

In the recent census, the population of the Balochistan was reduced due to protests by a political party because no census was conducted in certain parts of the provinces. However, it was revised by Islamabad and fixed at 5.3 per cent when the elected coalition government protested over it.

Though at present the constitutional quota of Balochistan is fixed at 5.1 per cent, but it was not practically implemented in the federal services and autonomous bodies and Balochistan was still getting jobs on the basis of 3.5 per cent.

One government department recently announced 25 posts in grades 1 to 11. More than 1,600 people applied. In another case, for five posts, more than 6,000 applied. The provincial government is operating an employment cell in the service and general administration department where all applications for jobsaddressed to the president, prime minister, governor and chief minister are referred.

There are thousands of applications dumped with no chance of providing jobs to the needy. The situation is even worse for those seeking private jobs. One can see an army of jobless people queuing up on the main inter-section of Quetta city-Mizan Chowk, seeking jobs on daily wages.

Construction has to be suspended during the province's freezing cold weather. Thus, jobs are available only on seasonal basis and only in summer.

Doctors and engineers comprise the most qualified pool of unemployed youth. According to Naeem Zarghoon, president of the Unemployed Doctors Association, 1,300 doctors are without jobs. Vacancies exist, but are not filled because of bureaucratic reasons. Doctors are regularly promoted to higher grades but the lower posts vacated by them are not filled in the absence of a service cadre for doctors.

According to government figures, there is only one doctor for over 2,200 people in Balochistan. "It is confirmed that posts of 800 doctors are vacant at the moment," Dr Zaigham claimed. The Bolan Medical College is producing around 120 qualified doctors every year. The PMA has paralyzed the healthcare system for several days in Quetta and in other townships of Balochistan in protest against the policy of the government not to fill vacant posts.

In the mid-1990s, the government had hired the services of doctors on a contract basis for three years. Their services were terminated at the conclusion of their contract, and most of them have been jobless since then. Last week, the government had reduced the age limit for public service and over 25 per cent of doctors have been rendered over-age and thus disqualified from applying for government jobs.

The situation is also not better for qualified but jobless engineers. There are around 3,000 jobless engineers in Balochistan of different categories. "The number of jobless engineers is increasing every year," says Nazir Ahmed Sasoli, general secretary of the Unemployed Engineers Association. The Khuzdar University of Engineering and Technology and the Agriculture University are producing around 150 to 160 engineers every year.

Scores of local jobless engineers have been protesting for many years in Dera Bugti against the practice of the owners of the Sui gas wells and plant to give jobs to engineers who do not belong to the province.

The Balochistan University is producing around 2,000 graduates and post-graduates every year. The Balochistan University of Information Technology and Sciences has also been set up in Quetta, but it has yet to turn out its first batch of graduates. A women's university will start functioning by March this year. The provincial government has around 130,000 employees from grade 1 to 22.

The retirement percentage is around seven to 10 per cent annually. Everybody can see crowds of youngsters and their parents around the office of the chief minister and ministers in the Balochistan Civil Secretariat, carrying their applications and other documents. Ministers and opposition members usually exchange hot words in assembly sessions on the issue of jobs and some times they level serious allegations against each other in this connection.

Balochistan has only one industrial town, Hub, where around 180 industries were established, but with the passage of time a majority of the concerns have shut down due to various reasons. Once the Gadani ship-breaking industry was a big job provider but government policies forced investors to wind up their business.

With the revival of the Saindak Copper Project, about 1,000 people will get jobs while efforts are under way for launching more mega projects in which a large number of jobless people could be adjusted. The provincial government has announced establishing a new force, the Balochistan Constabulary, in which 10,000 people will be recruited over three years, which would help to reduce the number of unemployed youth.

According to an estimate, several thousands jobs are available in federal departments and corporations under the constitutional quota of Balochistan, which has not been implemented for the last 55 years.