By Imtiaz Ali
Karachi: The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution which seeks 37,000 jobs in federal services for people from the province, saying it was the constitutional right of Sindh’s inhabitants.
The resolution moved by PPP’s senior legislator, Dr Sikandar Mandhro read “This Assembly resolves and recommends to the government of Sindh to approach the Federal government to ensure that the share of the province of Sindh in all federal services including autonomous bodies and corporations established by or under the control of the federal government, shall be secured and any omission in such allocation made in the past, shall be rectified, exactly in accordance with the provisions (Article 38) of the Constitution.”
Citing figures provided by the Establishment Division, Dr Mandhro said that over 439,000 people were employed in federal services and Sindh’s share of those jobs was over 82,000. However, he claimed that over 37,000 people from the province were being deprived of jobs in different grades at the federal level. Mandhro said it was tragic that in these times of large scale unemployment, only 200 people from Sindh were serving in Grade-13, especially since the province’s share stands at 606 for that particular grade. Furthermore, he claimed that the people of Sindh were deprived of 15,000 jobs in Grade-5. “Sindh is not rich enough to overlook it,” Mandhro said. He alleged that Sindh’s constitutional share of jobs was handed to “another province.”
Mandhro went on to say that if the provinces are not granted their constitutional rights, it would trigger a sense of deprivation and shatter confidence in the federation.
MQM parliamentary leader, Syed Sardar Ahmed said that Defence services could provide a large number of jobs to people of the province, but even in this sector, Sindh was being deprived. The former finance minister recalled that the Sindh Government raised the issue with the Centre during discussions over the NFC Award between 2003 and 2006. He said that now the equal distribution of jobs had become a constitutional right following the passage of the 18th amendment.
Law Minister Ayaz Sommro said that Sindh had been subjected to injustices since partition in 1947. He added that the people of the province had been deprived of their share of jobs for the last 13 years and pointed out that during his military rule; Pervez Musharraf once said that the people of Sindh were incapable of holding such positions.
Speaker of the Sindh Assembly Nisar Khuhro believed that if the provinces are given their rights under the 18th amendment, it would increase their confidence in the federation.
The Minister for Katchi Abadis, Rafiq Engineer claimed that a number of people get jobs in the federal services on “fake domiciles”, while former senior bureaucrat, Ghulam Mujadid Isran said that ads for jobs in concerned departments were given in newspapers that were never read in Sindh. He added that ads for job opening should be given in Sindhi newspapers as well.
MPA Humera Alwani said that a 100,000 jobs had been had been given to the people of Balochnistan under the Aghaz-e-Huqooq Balochistan package, while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was given a 100 percent job representation. She also pointed out that the job quota for the newly created Gilgit-Baltistan was also increased. However, she was surprised that the powerful province of Punjab was deprived of 22,000 jobs in federal services.
PML-FÂ’s Nusrat Abbasi said that Sindh was not only deprived of jobs, but also of water, oil and gas. She said this was despite the fact that the President of Pakistan was from the province.
Source: The News
Date:2/25/2011
