APROPOS the news item ‘Ministry accused of violating merit in hiring skill development council chief’ (Dec 17) , the Employers Federation of Pakistan (EFP) has taken a serious view of the news item in which the ministry is accused of violating merit in hiring the skill development chief and terming the appointment of Haji Muhammad Javed as the chairman of SDC, KP, as political and that Mr Javed was nominated by an unknown employees federation of Pakistan and that the appointment was made ignoring two nominees of the Peshawar Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The EFP considers it necessary to put the record straight and clarifies as under:

The Skill Development Councils (SDCs) are public-private partnership organisations constituted under the provision of the National Training Ordinance 1998, as amended in 2002. According to Clause 3(g) of the ordinance, the chairmen of SDCs’ were to be nominated by the chairman of the National Training Board, who in this case was the minister, out of the employers’ representatives nominated by the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan.

The Employers’ Federation of Pakistan (EFP) is the only employers’ body in Pakistan which is affiliated with the International Organisation of Employers and is mandated to represent the employers as a tripartite constituent in matters of social dialogue and issues related to labour and industrial relations with the stakeholders, including the government and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The SDCs’ were established at the initiative of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, as employer-led bodies on the pattern of British Technical Enterprise Councils (TECs) to promote industry-driven skill training to unemployed youths and to equip them with employable skills. Later, they were shaped into public-private initiative with tripartite composition through an amendment to the National Training Ordinance and, ever since then, the four SDCs’ were playing a very effective and pivotal role in promoting market-driven skill training in the country.

In the post-earthquake and flood disaster in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone, the KP SDC, with the support of business and employers, was able to impart employable skill training to 10,000 youths of the families affected by the earthquake and flood. This greatly helped in the social rehabilitation of these families.

The appointment of EFP nominee as SDC chairman was, therefore, a merit-based appointment in compliance with legal requirements.

Fasih ul Karim Siddiqui

EFP Board Director &

Chairman of IR & CSR Committee

Published in Dawn, December 22th, 2014