Hiring 'through balloting'

Providing employment to the unemployed is a cherished desire of every government. Of the rosy promises the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf made en route to power the most attractive, if not stunning, was its commitment to provide 10 million jobs to the aspiring youth of Pakistan. Some super-clever guys in the Establishment Division succeeded in selling it a novel idea: go for 'balloting'. In June 2019, it issued a notification for ballot-hiring for Grade 1-5 vacancies in government departments and its subordinate offices, adding that this would 'ensure recruitment on merit basis'. In the recruitment rule it replaced the word 'basis' with "through balloting". Not that the cabinet members overlooked the misleading proposition; they did not, and merrily went along as the proposed change sat well with the political leadership. It knew that vote-for-job temptation gels with millions of unemployed men and women in Pakistan. How is that? Ballot-hiring for appointments of 845 employees in the Pakistan Railways tells it all. In a petition filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC), Rawalpindi bench, the Prem Union, which is the collective bargaining agent (CBA), contended that half of the 845 appointees belonged to the constituencies of Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and his nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq. The court suspended those appointments till next hearing and asked the railways authorities to explain their position on the matter. Likewise, in this respect the LHC Bahawalpur bench also issued a stay order.

The question how will this issue play out in the coming days, has no easy answer. On the face of it, the Railways decision to make appointments by balloting militates not only against common sense but it is also in violation of the Constitution. The whole saga of ballot-hiring reeks of corruption and nepotism. Over 171,000 posts are to be filled by the federal government and its departments and autonomous bodies functioning under its control - which is about 18 percent of their total sanctioned strength. If these departments and bodies have recruited their present strength on basis of merit and eligibility, why can't it be done now? Let Sheikh Rashid maintain that the PR union has moved the court because it failed to get jobs for its people against the vacancies. But can he explain how come even the blind balloting was so choosy and gave almost half of the jobs to his and his nephew's electorates? Even when it was a huge challenge to make selections for 8,700 positions from a million applicants there is no justification for this blatant violation of the applicants' fundamental rights to be treated as equal citizens of Pakistan. The candidates who had secured the highest marks in the skill/written test and interview deserved to be appointed, but the Railways authorities changed the game and let the balloting mode supersede the ideals of merit and fitness. Also, the recruitment in violation of merit and competence is potentially antithetical to the compelling need of modernizing our century-old railways. Unlike many other Grade 1-5 jobs, the incumbents to these positions in the railways are expected to be specialists, be they act as train drivers, point-men or mechanics in the workshop. One would wish the court outlaws the recruitment on basis of balloting in this case, which in turn is expected to act as an antidote against all such political shenanigans.