QUETTA: Given the rising rate of unemployment in Balochistan, Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri on Tuesday assailed the provincial authorities’ lack of effort to fill up more than 30,000 vacancies in various departments.

Nawab Zehri called secretaries of the departments of communication, social welfare and Haj & Auqaf and asked them to justify the large number of vacancies existing in the said departments.

He ordered the departments’ officials to expedite the recruitment process by Dec 31 and then submit a report to him.

Says recruitment process should be completed by Dec 31

He said that despite numerous opportunities in various departments, the authorities concerned were not hiring people, creating unrest among the educated youth who were looking for jobs.

The chief minister said the issue of unemployment was one of the government’s top priories and in order to resolve this problem a large number of vacancies had been created in different government departments.

However, he regretted, the recruitment process had been suspended in some departments without any reason.

He said the government would formulate policies that were beneficial for the people and it was the bureaucracy’s responsibility to implement those policies.

“Due to non-implementation of the policies and government orders, the credibility of the government’s performance is negatively affected,” Nawab Zehri said, adding that his government would not tolerate the deplorable situation.

He ordered the provincial departments to start the recruitment process and said that all recruitments should be made on merit. “All government departments should complete the process of recruitment on the pending vacancies till December 31 and submit a report to him,” he said.

It was recently disclosed in a cabinet meeting that over 30,000 positions of different grades were vacant in various departments. It was then decided that the provincial secretaries would fill-up the posts from grade 1 to 15 through the departmental recruitment committee whereas posts above grade 15 would be filled through the Balochistan Public Service Commission.

Around 3,000 to 4,000 vacancies could be filled up so far in different government departments. It is maintained that thousands of educated youth graduating from universities of the province were desperately searching for jobs.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2017