RECENTLY, the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) published an advertisement for the recruitment of lecturers for which only Punjab domicile holders were eligible.

Students with an Islamabad domicile can apply neither for the PPSC nor for any other province because Islamabad is included in the 50 per cent Punjab quota in the CSS. Similarly, recently after a hue and cry by students having the Islamabad domicile, the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council instructed University of Health Sciences (UHS) to entertain the students with an Islamabad domicile for admission to public medical colleges in Punjab which UHS had refused.

The question is: why are the Islamabad domicile holder students being deprived of career opportunities when Islamabad is located geographically within Punjab, and Punjab has its CSS seats shared by Islamabad?

Why cannot the students of Islamabad excel in their career in Provincial Management Services besides the CSS? This is not only discrimination but amounts to depriving Islamabad students of their fundamental rights.

Students from Islamabad should be allowed to appear in the PPSC examinations the way students from erstwhile Fata were allowed to apply for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial management services.

This issue should be raised by MNAs from Islamabad in the National Assembly, and the Punjab government should also initiate necessary legislation in this regard.

Maj (r) Mudassar Raza Sayyami
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2020