WITH elections in sight, major political parties are busy mobilising the masses ... with showmanship and rhetoric, it seems. It is hard to project at this point how the public sentiments are being assessed or which promise the parties would choose to connect with the electorate.

Only PTI had included unemployment as a rallying slogan in the last election. How far it actually delivered on its promise in the province it governed is for the people to speculate. None of the four provinces made any attempt to report annual progress on key indicators in the territory under their rule despite devolution of power and resources post-8th Amendment and 7th NFC Award.

In a quantum shift after the award, the provincial share from the federal divisible pool went up from 48pc to 58.5pc and the provinces were vested with the responsibility of human resource management, agriculture and provision of social facilities.

Many believe that the political leadership deliberately suppresses the unemployment issue as it understands the enormity of the problem and knows that there is no ready solution available.

The proponents of free market within the parties could be ideologically opposed to the idea of job security that in their view depends on the proficiency of an individual. For them it is hard to digest that perfectly capable and employable individuals can fail to land a job for no fault of their own. The cost to the economy on account of misallocation and under-utilisation of valuable source somehow fails to grab their attention. The asymmetry in opportunities and market imperfections that restrict entry and exit does not bother them.

There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that all past governments, particularly the last two elected ones, used power of placement in government jobs to reward their loyalists and their relations. It served dual purpose: appeased hardcore supporters at public cost; and expanded their base in the officialdom.

It is hard to rank the four provincial governments on the basis of transparency in recruitment. The general perception is that nepotism is the highest in Balochistan followed by Sindh, Punjab and KP. In the absence of dependable data, it is not possible to substantiate the view though.

Often the quality of skills and the comparable level of efficiency in public servants in education, health and administration are quoted to contest or confirm the preconceived notions.

Nepotism, however, is not the only reason for the difference in the quality of public servants across the provinces. The quality of manpower pool in each province depends on multiple economic and social factors.

After putting unemployment at the top in 2008, the PPP in 2013 had dropped ‘employment’ altogether from the list of top five points of its election manifesto. It was fourth among the five priorities spelled out by the PTI in 2013. The PML-N, interestingly, has never campaigned on job-creation.

The leaders of all the three political parties were approached for their comments in order to provide the readers an insight on their party position on the issue. The central leaderships could not make time “on a short notice”. Some members of provincial teams spoke over the phone and promised to get back. They never did. That is, perhaps, the best they could do.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017