THIS is with reference to the report ‘26 of 38 federal secretaries hail from Punjab, NA told’ (April 3). The said information was placed before the National Assembly by the government in response to the questions asked by legislators earlier. The relevant minister in charge of the Establishment Division was provided a complete list of the federal secretaries with their domiciles.

However, it is strange to learn that people from other provinces are so ‘dumb’ that they cannot pass the civil services examination. Or perhaps there are certain ‘other’ elements at play.

Even if we attribute this anomaly to the absence of better educational opportunities in other provinces, the data shows that there are seven secretaries from rural Sindh and only three hail from urban Sindh. This, then, is rather mindboggling as urban areas, say, are supposed to have better educational institutions.

Unfortunately, there is not a single official from Balochistan at the highest level of bureaucracy, and only two are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Are the people from these provinces thick-headed?

It is high time myths and notions were shattered, and selections across the board for all higher civil and military positions were made more objectively, and free of biases as well as political considerations. There is something called merit that we need to focus on.

Khayyam Durrani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2024