Enough of quota

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan is a staunch believer in meritocracy. Giving an example he said, “Australia is the most successful team as their system is based on recognising talent. Pakistan has the best cricket talent, but does not come to the fore because there isn’t a system of merit”.

An effort was also made by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in January this year but the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice rejected the bill to abolish the quota system. The bill to abolish the quota system was initiated by PTI’s MNA Nusrat Wahid. She contended that the quota system was implemented in the Constitution for 40 years, so now the time has come to abolish it.

Moreover, a strategic point of the MoU signed by the PTI and MQM for cooperation to elect Imran Khan as the prime minister was, “all appointments in the government should be based on merit and according to law through an accredited, impartial testing system”. The MQM always wanted to scrap the job quota, and has been resisting its extension. The PML-N government had extended it in 1999. The extension expired in 2013.

The 1973 Constitution says, “No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth”.

The 1973 Constitution introduced the quota regime in order to give representation to the underdeveloped and backward areas in the federal jobs till the time they come out of this state of affairs.

Unfortunately, even after about five decades, the state of affairs has not changed despite the fact that quota is violation of merit and Karachiites are the worst sufferers for they are being deprived of federal jobs in organisations like PIA, Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim, State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Steel Mills, National Bank of Pakistan and all big federal institutions.

Only 7.5 per cent of the applicants for the Civil Services of Pakistan are selected on merit and remaining 92.5pc on quota basis — a system established to give every province of the country representation according to their population. The only beneficiary of this system appear to be the sons and daughters of ‘waderas’ and ‘jagirdars’ (the feudal elite).

It can be asked what the current breed of civil servants has delivered over the decades in terms of introducing better administrative practices, policies or imparting superior knowledge to the nation. The answer is shockingly disturbing. In essence, the men who are selected to actually run the civil administration have not been able to make any positive contribution. The sorry state of the country in terms of its economy, public healthcare and education even after 74 years of independence speaks for itself.

The Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood rightly argues that major reforms to the Civil Service of Pakistan, in a bid to improve the system of governance, is an absolute must.

While addressing a press conference in Islamabad recently the minister said there were many factors to improving the system of governance but “one very important part is reform of civil services”.

Now, it is high time to implement meritocracy so that right men and women are selected for all the government jobs without any discrimination following the essence of the 1973 Constitution.

The quota system, especially in Sindh, has created a sense of deprivation among the Urdu-speaking Karachiites who are only awarded 2pc of the quota. The deteriorating standard of the provincial government departments is the result of the fact that their appointments have been made on the basis of domicile and not merit. If the system continues, the country would keep on getting below average and unenthusiastic civil servants and it goes without saying that the continuation of the system will gradually ruin the administrative setup of the country.

Critics of the quota system argue that if the reason for implementation of the system is the fact that people from rural areas cannot compete on merit with the urban population because of marked difference in the education system, efforts be made to improve the standard of education in villages. Ignoring merit to provide employment to the people from rural areas will ultimately result in collapse of governance.

If we really want to establish good governance in Sindh and the country as a whole, it is time to raise the standard of education in every city, town, and village of Pakistan instead of continuing with the quota system. The time has come to provide a level playing field to the entire population of Sindh irrespective of domicile.

Unfortunately, the investments in building good quality schools in Sindh in the last 40 years have been mostly wasted due to poor planning and corruption. The shocking fact is the presence of over 40,000 ‘ghost teachers’ and 5,229 ‘ghost schools’ in Sindh that are eating up quite a large share of Rs145.02 billion education budget.

Now the biggest challenge for Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah would be to eliminate all ghost schools and remove all ghost teachers. Moreover, all those responsible for this menace in the Sindh education department must be severely punished so that such occurrences could be stopped forever. Unless the rampant corruption in the education sector is somehow controlled the yearly increase in the education budget will not serve the purpose.

In 1973, the government of Pakistan imposed quota system in the whole country where the employment and admissions to all colleges and universities was based on provincial population. The government of Sindh divided it further on urban, rural, and domicile district level. This was introduced due to the higher segment of the population, which resided in rural areas, had virtually no representation in government employment and in the universities.

Keeping in view the deprivation among the youth of Karachi, this is undoubtedly one of the most serious issues which require immediate attention of the policymakers. Ignoring merit since the introduction of the quota system in 1973 has resulted in the supply of substandard materials in the government offices. Now it is time to raise the standard of education in our schools and colleges so that we can get quality raw material which can be converted into superfine products in Civil Services Academy.

According to retired civil servants Pakistan’s bureaucratic institutions are certainly in a state of disarray if not in decline and they insist that educational standard and quality of individuals joining the civil services is inferior if not poor as compared to what it was in 1950s and 1960s.

Needless to add that public institutions and bureaucracy are crucial components for good governance. The challenge for the state is to reform and rebuild the public institutions that would be competitive, enterprising and capable of upholding the rule of law. Thus, reform in civil service demands wisdom and caution. Laws and procedures should be adopted through transparent mechanisms, so that they promote merit and fair play.