Hunarmand scheme versus job opportunities

Syed Ahmed Mujtaba Gilani, the brother of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, revealed that more than 150,000 youths have been trained under the PM's Hunarmand Pakistan programme and are now part of the country's human resource pool. Few would challenge the need for such a programme though many may well challenge the qualifications of the Prime Minister's brother to run it or indeed the numbers he claimed had been trained. The critical question as to how many of these trained youths found employment was not addressed in Syed Mujtaba Gilani's speech. Be that as it may, there is ample evidence that the country is in the throes of a serious financial crisis only partly due to external factors notably the global recession. The major contributor to the economic impasse the country is experiencing today, analysts are agreed, is the continued failure of the government to meet our energy needs with obvious negative repercussions on productivity that has a direct bearing on employment levels. Additionally the present government can be held accountable for two disastrous policies, considered all the more disastrous given our escalating budget deficit. First is the systematic crowding out of private sector credit by the government as it has increasingly become engaged in borrowing from the commercial banks. This has ensured that the private sector is unable to become the engine of growth or employment thereby further stagnating national productivity. Second and equally importantly was the passage of the Sacked Employees Ordinance 2009 that compelled poorly performing public sector entities (PSEs) to reinstate and pay arrears to those that had been let go in the past with the objective of downsizing thereby providing these entities a fighting chance to turn themselves' around. An example is the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) that has recently approached Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for 555 million rupees of estimated arrears due to the reinstated employees. It maybe recalled that in 1998 the Nawaz Sharif government sacked SNGPL employees who had been inducted during Benazir Bhutto's stint in power. While few can challenge the accusation hurled against PPP governments (past as well as present) that public sector entities were and continue to be used as recruitment centres for party loyalists irrespective of qualifications or experience nonetheless the decision of the Zardari-led government to reinstate the sacked employees and give them arrears has raised several questions about the financial advisability of such a measure at a time when the country is grappling with a financial crisis. In addition, compelling SNGPL and SSGCL in particular to reinstate and give arrears to sacked employees is all the more inexplicable given the fact that the two are currently wrestling with diminishing gas resources in the country, gas shedding and rising gas charges that is angering the general public. Lending credence to claims that the sacked employees may have been appointed by the Benazir government on political grounds as opposed to merit was the SNGPL submission to Ogra that even though the sacked employees have higher education levels yet they lack skill sets required to undertake set tasks. Additionally SNGPL stated that it is "making concerted efforts by putting them (reinstated employees) through various formal training sessions as well as on the job training" however added that tangible results would take time. Ogra challenged this assertion and pointed out that before their termination they were appointed against suitable positions and subsequent to due diligence and scrutiny. Be that as it may, Ogra in its own words showed generosity and allowed a 50 percent expenditure on account of sacked employees amounting to 278 million rupees "on provisional basis at this time subject to improvement consequent to effective utilisation of these employees." Whether Ogra's generosity was taken independent of executive direction is not clear. However, one would urge the government to take measures that are economically as opposed to politically viable given the sad state of affairs of our economy in general and our PSEs in particular. Copyright Business Recorder, 2011