QUETTA: Members from both treasury and opposition benches in the Balochistan Assembly on Tuesday expressed resentment over delay in appointment on around 35,000 vacancies in different provincial departments. They alleged that the provincial bureaucracy was creating hurdles in appointment on these posts.

During a provincial assembly session which was presided over by member of the chairpersons panel Yasmeen Lehri, the chairman of the assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, Abdul Majeed Khan Achakzai, took up the issue of vacant posts in the provincial departments.

He said despite a provincial cabinet’s decision for filling these vacant posts, advertisements for them had not been given by the departments concerned.

He demanded that all vacant posts should be advertised and process of recruitment started.

Mr Achakzai suggested that up to class-four vacancies should be filled from the districts concerned.

Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and Mir Khalid Langove pointed out that the finance department had put the condition that appointment of class-four employees would be made through the National Testing Service (NTS)

Mr Achakzai suggested that all government employees be given salary through the bio-metric system.

The assembly session also witnessed a heated debate over increasing university fees. Some members called for replacing the vice chancellor of the Balochistan University.

Taking part in the debate, Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti said that the cabinet had decided that vacancies up to grade-9 would be filled through the departments concerned. He said it was regrettable that the bureaucracy was not following the decision of the cabinet.

Referring to recent recruitments in the prison department, Mr Bugti accused the department’s senior officials of taking bribes from candidates. He said the matter would be investigated and those found involved in the crime would be punished.

Minister for Health Rehmat Saleh Baloch said that students were protesting over the issue of increase in the university fees but no step had so far been taken to resolve the issue.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2017