No more chits!
Our civil service institutions cannot be stable and result-oriented unless and until merit is attached due importance and weight at the time of appointments and recruitments, otherwise we are destined to suffer in the long term and will not be able to hold our heads high in the comity of nations.
The decision and announcement made by present PTI-led federal government and PPP-led Sindh government to fill vacant positions and make appointments in different departments is highly welcome. What is badly needed is to ensure applying the golden principles of merit, justice, transparency and fair play for the smooth functioning of institutions of civil service and their day-to-day affairs in the best possible manner.
The poor’s asset is their ability which they wish to invest for betterment, welfare, prosperity and economic stability of the country. Someone has rightly said that, “Ability is the poor man’s wealth”. In the words of Bickerstaff,
“Like the sun true merit shows;
By nature warm, by nature bright;
With inbred flames, he nobly glows,
Nor needs the aid of borrow’d light.”
As Shakespeare says, “The force of his own merit makes his way,
A gift that heaven gives for him.”
According to another, “When merit appears, do justice to it without scruple”.
The influx of unemployed youth badly deserves to be inducted on priority basis in the larger interest of the institutions of the civil service.
There should be no place for likes and dislikes, nepotism, favouritism, political compulsion and compromise; only meritorious candidates irrespective of prejudice, caste, colour, creed or political affiliation should be recruited on priority basis, so as to deliver quality services to the common citizens for their welfare and wellbeing.
We are already lagging behind other nations in each and every discipline, and are not in position to compete with them. If the wrong practice of making appointments on political grounds continues unabated to win favour, or obtain either personally politically motivated interests, would surely jeopardise our national interests, and result in the downfall of our institutions of civil service.
- attaching importance to merit in appointments would bring about stability to our institutions of civil service, while the general public would breathe a sigh of relief and the country would make visible progress by leaps and bounds
The federal government and PPP-led Sindh government intend to provide 10 million jobs and 41,000 jobs to unemployed youths respectively, the advertisements of which are expected to appear shortly in famous national papers.
If appointments are made purely on the basis of likes, dislikes, recommendations or chits, the government had better not bother to bear the expenses of advertisements for this futile exercise and create a burden for the national kitty.
Is it possible for us to take and lead our nation to the path of prosperity and progress, to the heights of glory and greatness, while succumbing to political pressures and violating golden principles of merit, transparency and fairness?
The successive governments in our beloved country have inducted and accommodated their cronies with lucrative jobs and posts, setting aside the set code of conduct and rules. Such ugly practices and precedents from time to time have pushed the country to the wall. Now it is ripe time for the PTI-led federal government, the election manifesto of which was to lay the foundations of change in the country, to fulfil its promise of change in letter and spirit in larger interests of this beloved country. No lip service or rhetoric.
The country desperately needs sweeping reforms and their implementation in true spirit and essence.
The well-qualified, talented and competent young candidates, holding degrees in their hands, are wandering from one place to another looking for even those jobs beneath their worth, suitability and qualification. Our rulers must value their worth and give significance to those who go through books, toil day and night for having sublime social status and lofty ideals in life. If such shinning stars and competent minds are denied their right to a suitable job, they would do nothing except resort to criminal activities, wrong practices of robbing or snatching things, succumbing to extremist elements and becoming a menace for society. Dragging our unemployed youth to the abyss and quagmire of the forces of darkness and cobweb of social evils, inimical to light and positivity, would amount to wreaking havoc with the future of innocent lives. This is not a trivial or petty matter, but rather a cause of grave concern for the sensitive souls and patriotic forces of this beloved country of ours.
It is first and foremost the responsibility of our rulers and state institutions to provide employment and jobs to the aspiring deserving and meritorious candidates to remove their sense of restlessness and lift them out of any inferiority complex.
It is no exaggeration to mention here that the act of attaching importance to merit in appointments would bring about stability to our institutions of civil service, while the general public would breathe a sigh of relief and the country would make visible progress by leaps and bounds. Let us pledge to work and struggle with consistency for supremacy of merit in the country, come what may, for it is the only panacea for institutional stability.
