KARACHI Aug 4: Former City Nazim Niamatullah Khan on Thursday demanded President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to announce an employment package for the educated youth of Karachi.

According to the package, jobs would be provided to at least 50,000 unemployed youth of city on merit only.

Talking to a delegation of youths, Mr Niamat said unemployment was the biggest problem of the country and Karachi as well, and thousands of highly qualified educated persons, including doctors and engineers, were moving from pillar to post in search of jobs and seem disappointed with their future.

The government should spend an appropriate amount for providing employment to the country’s youths side by side developing infrastructure, he observed.

He pointed out that some elements in the provincial government did not want the district government to provide jobs to unemployed persons on merit.

He alleged that despite several demands, the ban on government jobs was not lifted nor was he (Niamat) allowed to provide jobs to the deserving.

He accused the MQM of imposing a “party quota system” on government jobs despite raising their voice against it, and distributed jobs among their party workers, office bearers and their relatives violating all rules and regulations.

Mr Niamat further alleged that the MQM had given government jobs only to its workers during its 17 years of tenure, saying many of them were unqualified and had fake degrees and domiciles.

Qualified and educated persons were deprived of their due rights, and government jobs were given to the unqualified, less educated and corrupt sector and unit in-charges and relatives of MQM leaders, he alleged.

The MQM could not be condoned over such irregularities, he said, and appealed to the citizens of Karachi not to vote for those who would deprive them of their due rights.

Mr Niamat said he had eliminated the culture of nepotism during his four-year tenure and people were given jobs only on merit. He said he had made history by appointing 22 persons in the Karachi Medical and Dental College through the Sindh Public Service Commission while persons were previously appointed in the college on the basis of political affiliation.—PPI