KARACHI, Oct 2: Hundreds of unemployed graduates and postgraduates are still running from pillar to post after submitting their applications for jobs whenever vacancies are publicised after the lifting of ban on government jobs to fill over 40,000 posts in various departments.
Although the posts are still lying vacant, most of these aspirants have been made to wait for an interview or test.
In many cases, the candidates do not know about the fate of their application many months after the same had been submitted. There are hundreds who have lost even the hope for a response from the concerned authorities despite the fact that the applicants have spent much on sending applications and letters through courier services just to get a reply.
Frustration among them multiplies when they would come to know that some applicants coming from influential families having links with the present set up were being recruited on contract basis or daily wage basis without merit having been considered. There is some sort of understanding also that whenever someone would be appointed on permanent basis, these favourites would be given preference over others because of the experience they would have gained during the contract period or daily wage job.
On Aug 16, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim had announced 45,000 vacancies to be filled soon on merit basis. This was followed by Governor Ishratul Ibad’s statement on Aug 24 repeating the same promise. “But the word ‘soon’ is yet to be explained as no body knows what the period of time it refers to,” a dejected jobless teachers moaned.
He also pointed out that even in his speech on budget 2005-06, the provincial finance minister had resolved to bring down unemployment rate by providing jobs to unemployed youths of Sindh.
According to analysts, apart from such announcements made by the government umpteenth time on different occasions over the past four years, unemployment in Sindh, particularly Karachi, is registering a constant rise. They estimate that in Karachi alone, no less than 100,000 new jobs have to be given to eligible youths graduating from various colleges, universities and other institutions to contain the trend. Similarly, jobs to a huge number of people in the interior of Sindh have to be arranged to control influx of those arriving in the metropolis in search of employment. The gravity of the situation could very well be gauged from the fact that in 2004, when the government first advertised teaching jobs after lifting of the ban, as many as 500,000 applications were received for 7,000 vacancies.
Former Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui had estimated in 2004 that there were around 1.2 to 1.5 million graduates in this metropolis without a job and he attributed the growing trend of crime to this very reason.
Although the ban on jobs has been lifted by Sindh cabinet on October 20, 2004, the decision is yet to be implemented in letter and spirit. After the cabinet took this decision, the then information secretary had told newsmen that there were 16,282 vacancies in BPS-1 to 5; 2,888 in BPS-6 to 8; 15,041 in BPS-9 to 15, 1,420 in BPS-16; 3,935 in BPS-17; 2,080 in BPS-18 and 879 in BPS-19 to be filled strictly on merit basis.