QUETTA: The Balochistan government has decided to fill thousands of vacancies in several departments through a competent departmental committee on merit instead of the National Testing Service (NTS).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the provincial government here on Sunday. The meeting was convened to discuss recruitment in different government departments on vacant posts. The meeting decided to implement the recent decision of the provincial cabinet on the recruitment policy issue.

The meeting was presided over by Chief Secretary Mathar Niaz Rana. Chairman of Public Service Commission Abdul Salik Khan Yousafzai, Additional Chief Secretary of Home Arshad Majeed, Secretary of S&GAD Muhammad Hashim Ghilzai, Secretary of Finance Abdul Rehman Bazdar and other officials attended the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief secretary said the provincial cabinet had already banned the filling of vacancies through the National Testing Service.

He said that during his visit to remote areas of Balochistan, he came to know that there was extreme uneasiness and frustration among the youth of the province due to massive unemployment and the educated youth holding even M.Phil and Masters’ degrees were out of work.

He said the government had been using all available resources to fill vacancies in different departments on the basis of merit.

He said that during the recruitment process no injustice would be done with anyone and the entire process would be carried out in a transparent manner to restore confidence of the youth in the government.

During the meeting, several suggestions were given for making the recruitment process transparent and merit-based. The participants decided to review these suggestions in the next meeting.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2021