QUETTA: The Balochistan government has decided to fill all posts lying vacant in different departments and address the problem of unemployment in the province.

The decision was taken during a two-day meeting of the provincial cabinet which ended on Saturday. It was presided over by Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch.

The meeting noted that on one hand thousands of posts of various categories were lying vacant in different departments, on the other joblessness was creating unrest among the educated youth.

Official sources said the cabinet asked the departments to submit details of vacancies which would be filled through tests and interviews to be conducted by the departmental selection committees.

The cabinet abolished the condition for a candidate to hold secondary school certificate for recruitment in Levies Force as sepoy and allowed middle pass candidates to appear in the test and interview.

Thousands of posts lying vacant in the province

It took up the issue of shifting of inter-city bus terminal to Hazarganji and constituted a committee, headed by Chief Secretary Saifullah Chattah, to obtain assurance in writing from the transporters about using the new terminal according to an understanding reached between them and the government. It decided to take action against the transporters found violating the agreement.

The cabinet approved a number of bills to be tabled in the assembly, in­­cluding the Balochistan Sound System (Regulation) Bill, Balochistan Prot­ec­tion of Witness Bill, Balochistan Sales Tax and Services Bill, Regularisation of TTC Industrial Employees Bill and Anti-Wall Chalking Bill.

The meeting was informed that funds allocated for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in the budget for 2014-2015 had been utilised and majority of development projects had either been completed or wee about to be completed. Only a few projects, which have become controversial because of disputes over their sites, have not been completed.

Briefing the cabinet, Home Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said that heinous crimes like sectarian violence, targeted killings and kidnapping for ransom had decreased by 70 per cent. Overall crime rate fell by 55 per cent and law and order situation improved to considerable extent, he added.

The cabinet appreciated efforts made by law enforcement agencies, including police and Levies Force, to curb crime and maintain law and order.

The chief minister took notice of power crisis in the province and formed an eight-member committee to take up the issue with the authorities concerned in Islamabad. He said areas from Loralai to Khuzdar were also facing water shortage because of outages.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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