PESHAWAR, May 25: The NWFP government has turned down a proposal floated by the federal government, which proposes to scale down the provincial quotas in federal services to meet a constitutional requirement, terming it retrogressive and saying that it will leave the province at a disadvantage vis-a-vis Punjab and Sindh.
Senior government officials told DawnDawn that the federal government had sought proposals from the NWFP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan on a constitutional provision to gradually do away with the provincial quotas in federal services.
Citing Article 27 of the Constitution, the federal government had pointed out that quotas, given under the said provision, would have to be done away with by 2013.
Article 27 says: “(1) No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race , religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth.
Provided that, for a period not exceeding forty years from the commencing day, posts may be reserved for persons belonging to any class or area to secure their adequate representation in the service of Pakistan... —-”
Officials contended that the federal government had proposed to cut down provincial quotas by 10 per cent every year over a 10-year-long period. All provincial quotas would then be abolished and future recruitment in federal services would be done through open merit, the officials added.
The proposal spared only FATA and the Northern Areas in this regard.
The NWFP gets 11.5 per cent of the jobs in the federal government, Punjab gets 50 per cent, Sindh 19.5 per cent, Balochistan 4.5 per cent while FATA and the Northern Areas get a four per cent and two per cent share, respectively, in the federal services on the basis of 1981 census.
The federal jobs continue to be distributed among the four provinces, the tribal areas and Northern Areas on the basis of old census figures, despite fresh census carried out in 1998.
A minister in the NWFP government said that the federal government’s proposal was discussed by the provincial cabinet in its meeting held last week. Secretary, establishment, Ataullah Khan Toru, had given a briefing in this regard, he added.
The minister said that while criticizing the proposal, the cabinet was of the view that it would hurt the interests of the smaller provinces vis-‘-vis their share in federal employment.
During the discussion on the proposal, it was pointed out that the NWFP would be unable to compete with the bigger provinces like Punjab for federal jobs because of lack of proper educational facilities, low literacy rate and backwardness, the minister said.
The cabinet had, after thoroughly discussing the proposal, urged the provincial government to take up the issue with the federal government, persuading it to maintain the status quo so far as the provinces’ share in the federal services was concerned.
They contended that Punjab already had 50 per cent share in federal jobs and the abolition of the provincial quota in this regard would further enhance its overall chances of securing more jobs because of better educational facilities there.
The proposal, officials said, would not only affect the NWFP but would also affect Balochistan, which was more underdeveloped than the other three provinces, both in terms of the literacy rate and the quality of education.
Officials believed that like the NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh, FATA and the Northern Areas, too, would oppose the proposal.
Officials said that by acceding to the province’s demand, the federal government would either have to extend the deadline for doing away with provincial quotas as given in the Constitution or scrap the article in question. In both these cases, they said, the federal government would have to amend the Constitution.