Whither meritocracy?

The federal cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday last increased the Balochistan quota for federal jobs from 3.5 to 6 percent. This increase in the quota is part of a plan to eliminate merit altogether from the federal services.
According to a report that appeared in this paper the other day, the government is preparing to abolish 10 percent merit-based job quota in the federal services that the 1973 Constitution provides for. The provinces' shares in the federal government jobs are also to be revised on the basis of the 1998 census.
The revised share of Punjab, including the Capital Territory, is to be increased by 3 percent from 50 percent to 53 percent; Sindh's by 3 percent from 19 to 22 percent; NWFP's by 1.5 percent, from 11.5 percent to 13 percent, Balochistan's by 2.5 percent (it gets a special one percent additional allocation) from 3.5 percent to 6 percent.
It has also been proposed, says our report, that in future provincial quotas should be automatically adjusted in conformity with the results of national census as and when conducted. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is said to have already approved the proposal, directing the Establishment Division to present the same before the Cabinet for revision of regional job quotas in order to make them reflective of the census results.
The proposed abolition of the merit-based quota in the federal services, it hardly needs saying, is a retrogressive step. It also runs counter to the President's and the Prime Minister's repeated declarations of commitment to the promotion of meritocracy.
So far as making population the sole criterion for job allocations is concerned, it is equally undesirable for its implications vis-a-vis the principle of merit and also for perpetuating the most populous province's dominance over the others. It also militates against the government's efforts to decelerate the population growth. If people are to be rewarded with jobs and distribution from the federal divisible pool on the basis of population then why should the provinces try to limit their population growth?
It would be in the fitness of things to select people on the basis of merit, irrespective of provincial domicile. But, of course, the disadvantaged sections of society, such as people of backward areas and women, need to be assigned special job quotas and brought into the mainstream of national life through the exercise of positive discrimination or affirmative action.
The levels of backwardness vary from province to province and within the provinces from one area to another. Therefore all the backward areas in the country irrespective of the provinces they belong to should be identified and allocated a quota for jobs for which they should compete amongst themselves so that merit is also the criterion in their case.
The idea has to be to make available opportunities for uplift and advancement to those who are least fortunate in terms of accessibility to resources but at the same time select the best in each category.
One does not expect a technocrat prime minister like Shaukat Aziz to ignore the principle of merit in favour of the population criterion alone. Surely, more people need more resources but not at the expense of less developed areas or those who manage to have better qualifications despite the odds. The present proposal of doing away with the merit quota and the allocation of the rest of the jobs only on the basis of population must be reviewed in the interest of the overall developmental effort.