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Posted by Shahroz Bashir in UNEMPLOYMENT-SCOURGE OF NAWAZ SHARIF POLICY on August 11th, 2013
The country’s disgruntled and jobless youth – and possibly other people kept out of the workforce – were hoping for fair play from the new government this year, after having lived through the bizarre hiring policy of the previous regime. Over the past five years, there was total disregard for merit in hiring — nepotism was all pervasive.
But the hopes of the unemployed were dashed when the federal cabinet dropped a bombshell in June by freezing recruitment in government departments.
This move has caused consternation amongst those who, despite being qualified enough, were thrown from pillar to post in the past for having had no sifarish to be inducted into government services. The ban may have less of an impact on urban dwellers, given the several employment avenues that exist in cities, but the decision is bound to have serious consequences for those in rural areas. Rural folk, for the most part, depend on government jobs, as the private sector — including industries and NGOs — has little or no presence.
The lack of employment opportunities in rural areas may be a potential cause of the mass movement of labour to urban areas, adding further pressure on the already saturated market. So far, the government has failed to hammer out a policy to arrest the bulging issue of unemployment and its resultant implosion both in rural and urban areas.
Under the present formula, around 7.5 per cent of federal government department appointments are made on merit, 50 per cent for Islamabad and Punjab, 19 per cent for Sindh, 11.5 per cent for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, six per cent for Balochistan, four per cent for Fata and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), and two per cent for Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Article 27 of the 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 grounds only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence and place of birth.”
Unfortunately, the stark reality is the antithesis of what is laid down in the Constitution. Even with the help of the best detecting devices, one can hardly find people, especially from Balochistan, Fata, G-B and Sindh, working in federal government departments in the capital. The provinces’ quota has time and again been trampled on by successive governments who have made appointments based on sifarish, rather than on merit. As of now, the trend is nowhere close to dying out.
One out of every 10 people of the country’s population has been added to the pool of the unemployed, as the unemployment rate further increased to 6.5%, showing signs of a crisis-plagued and slowing economy.
The unemployment rate increased from 6% to 6.5% during the October-December period of 2012 – an increase of 8.4% over the same period of 2011, according to the latest Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2012-13. The survey was released on Monday by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
In urban areas, the unemployment rate only increased by 2% to 10.1%.
However, unemployment in rural areas increased to 5% from 4.3%, showing an increase of 16.3%. This indicates that there had been an alarming increase in the jobless rate, in contrast to the claims of the previous Pakistan Peoples Party-led coalition government that it had pumped in an additional Rs800 billion in the rural economy to create more jobs.
Another figure showed there was no real improvement in the living standards in rural areas. All persons aged above 10 who work at least one hour per week were defined as employed persons regardless of whether they were paid employees or self-employed.
The agriculture sector employed 45.5% of the working force, which is lower than the 46.3% ratio of the corresponding period of 2010-11. Yet it remains the single largest sector in terms of job creation.
The PPP-led coalition government in its five-year tenure tried to support the rural economy by increasing support prices of various commodities. In particular, the rates for wheat were increased from Rs425 per 40 kilogramme in 2008 to Rs 1,200 per 40kg in 2013. The government did not, however, focus on increasing per acre yield, which remained stagnant.
The survey showed that roughly 400,000 people become jobless, which experts term an alarming figure.
Moreover, the 6.5% figure does not depict the true picture of unemployment and poverty in the country as 27.1% of the employed force has been shown as “contributing family workers”, who are neither paid in cash nor in kind, according to the government’s own definitions. A person who works without payment in cash or in kind on an enterprise operated by a member of his household or other related persons is termed as a contributing family worker.
By adding contributing workers’ number, the unemployment rate comes close to 15%, said Dr Rashid Amjad, a labour economist and former vice chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. He, however, added that in a developing country, people will have to work, irrespective of whether they are being paid or not.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2013.
The higher growth rate of population is the major cause of unemployment in Pakistan .the resources of the country are limited. Karachi is the biggest industrial base of Pakistan, but the investors are reluctant to invest there because of unrest and violence. Our educational system is also responsible for increasing unemployment rate among the educated youth. The attitude of our youth towards the choice of the career is unrealistic and unproductive .Rapid mechanization andcomputer technology is also causing unemployment. Millions of the people in Pakistan are poor and due to poverty people are over burdened with expenditures and their savings are low. Current international financial crisis is one of the biggest reason of unemployment in Pakistan and in the whole world .
This crisis originated from the banking sector of USA,UK and some European countries and is now a global phenomena. Political instability, bad law and order situation, army’s interference, bomb blasts, terrorism, inconsistent economic policies etc are the factors which are disturbing domestic and foreign investment. Pakistan investors are taking away their money to Dubai and other countries of the world. Baseless allegations of terrorism has tarnished the image at international level .so in the current scenario Pakistan has limited job opportunities in other countries of the world. Concluding, I would like to suggest that with proper economic planning, consistent policies of government, better law and order situation, overcoming energy crisis, sincerity with Pakistan and by adopting the Islamic economic system .we can not only tackle the issue of unemployment but every economic problem of our country as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2013.
The higher growth rate of population is the major cause of unemployment in Pakistan .the resources of the country are limited. Karachi is the biggest industrial base of Pakistan, but the investors are reluctant to invest there because of unrest and violence. Our educational system is also responsible for increasing unemployment rate among the educated youth. The attitude of our youth towards the choice of the career is unrealistic and unproductive .Rapid mechanization andcomputer technology is also causing unemployment. Millions of the people in Pakistan are poor and due to poverty people are over burdened with expenditures and their savings are low. Current international financial crisis is one of the biggest reason of unemployment in Pakistan and in the whole world .
This crisis originated from the banking sector of USA,UK and some European countries and is now a global phenomena. Political instability, bad law and order situation, army’s interference, bomb blasts, terrorism, inconsistent economic policies etc are the factors which are disturbing domestic and foreign investment. Pakistan investors are taking away their money to Dubai and other countries of the world. Baseless allegations of terrorism has tarnished the image at international level .so in the current scenario Pakistan has limited job opportunities in other countries of the world. Concluding, I would like to suggest that with proper economic planning, consistent policies of government, better law and order situation, overcoming energy crisis, sincerity with Pakistan and by adopting the Islamic economic system .we can not only tackle the issue of unemployment but every economic problem
of our country as well.
Reference
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