KARACHI, Sept 14: The Sindh government has failed to take a decision on the issue of lifting the long-imposed ban on recruitment.

Hundreds of thousands of educated jobless youth have eagerly waiting for the lifting of the ban as promised by chief minister Ali Mohammad Mahar and several of his cabinet colleagues quite frequently.

During demonstrations against the government’s apathy over the plight of jobless people, the aggrieved participants express their view that the Sindh government seems to have been held hostage by the IMF and World Bank as far as lifting of the ban, imposed some seven years ago, is concerned.

The aim of imposing the ban was to discourage stuffing of unnecessary staff into, what had been described as, the already overstaffed departments of the provincial government in order to control overdraft and excessive expenditure under non-development heads which had constantly been pushing Sindh kitty’s graph up day by day.

During the seven-year period, the purpose has been served mainly owing to a large number of employees reaching their age of superannuation, and a considerably big number of others having been lured to golden handshake scheme. Quite a good number of employees switched over to private sector for better prospects and package.

However, while the ban left hundreds of posts in various departments vacant, it also aggravated social problems in society where tens of thousands of educated people, especially youths, are seen running from pillar to post to get themselves engaged in some gainful activity. This appeared the ultimate result of denial of a government job to qualified people and also of the high level of unrest in thousands of poor families. The unemployment rate gradually rose to an unprecedented level.

The long imposed ban caused non-availability of qualified people in the government departments which led to poor performance on the part of the department as a whole. At the same time, the government failed in achieving the targets set by itself with regard to different social sector projects like education, health and other basic amenities. For example, by not appointing qualified teachers in public sector educational and training institutions, not only the goal of literary up to the target level could not be achieved, but the desired standard of education also could not be maintained. Many new school buildings, constructed during this period, could not be made functional and those lying closed for want of teaching and other staff remained shut.

Similarly, by denying jobs to doctors and paramedics, the government could not provide adequate health facilities to the number of people it had planned to cover. Newly established health units also remained without staff and thus non-operational.

Other social sector projects met the same fate.

The absence of required strength of manpower, particularly appropriate professionals, in some specific departments created many problems in respect of government’s plans to improve the standard of living of common man.

One of the most essential one is the police department as law and order has always remained a top priority subject of successive governments. Despite allout efforts by the authorities, law and order situation could never be improved to the satisfaction of general public. Though Sindh, especially Karachi, has a reasonable security network, it lacks a sufficient strength of police personnel in densely populated urban areas. The present strength is quite insufficient to cope with the situation when violence, involving armed groups, parties or organizations, takes place.

CONTINUED PROCESS: Amid the ban on employment, the large number of educational and training institutions are continuously producing hundreds of thousands of qualified workers every year only to add to the already massive army of jobless youths. A restricted number of them find a job in private organizations. The public sector, due to the ban on employment, does not welcome the youths. Rather, it is further discouraging the job-seekers while pursuing the policy of privatization. Job opportunities in financial, education and other institutions have been shrinking due to the policy.