I HAVE been wondering whether I became a victim of foul play or it was just bad luck since I got an email after nine months from the camp office in Karachi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) regarding the cancellation of my selection as a consular assistant. This is despite the fact that the same office had informed me of my selection for the position in September 2021.

The latest email informed me that the ministry in Islamabad had cancelled the recruitment completely without stating any reason. Now, let me give a brief background.

I qualified for consular assistant at the camp office after qualifying written examination and skill test, and later passed the panel interview as well. I was informed about my selection in September last year.

Since then I had been waiting for the appointment letter when, on my inquiry, I was informed simply that the recruitment had been cancelled without stating any reason behind the decision or explaining why I was not informed of the decision. This has certainly put a question mark on the recruitment process of the said ministry, and makes one wonder if there is any such thing as merit in MoFA.

I could have taken it as my bad luck or my incapacity to hold the position I had applied for, but the multi-stage recruitment process was cancelled without any reason nine months after informing the candidate of his selection. That I was ‘selected’ suggests that I was good enough for the job. Once a decision was taken to overturn the selection, I would have been informed if it was owing to some issues with the recruitment process or if there was some other element, like, say, austerity drive. But I was never informed and I kept waiting for the appointment letter instead of looking for employment openings somewhere else.

Together, the two elements suggest there is something fishy in the whole process. The relevant authorities definitely owe me an explanation. There is already a dearth of employment, and if the government functionaries start fiddling around with the recruitment process, where will the educated youth go?

Abbass Raza
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022