Regularising contract employees

The government has requested all ministries/departments/autonomous corporations to regularise contractual employees ahead of the general election, according to a Business Recorder exclusive report. This measure, if implemented, is without doubt against the spirit of the 20th January order by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) banning all kinds of recruitments in any ministry‚ division‚ department or institution of the federal government or any department or institution of any provincial and local government with immediate effect.
Only recruitments by the Federal or a Provincial Public Service Commissions were exempted from this order. This particular measure would therefore be seen as an attempt at blatant pre-poll rigging and is likely to be challenged in the court of law.
Documentary proof available with this newspaper disturbingly includes a letter dated 31st January written by Farhana Bashir (Director General Administration/IT) to all DGs/Directors (HQ and Regions) of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), the current government's flagship poverty reduction programme, directing them to send employees confirmation cases immediately to headquarters and claims that the Board in its 15th meeting held on June 28, 2012 approved and promulgated BISP Employees Service Regulations 2012. The letter explicitly directs that all such cases be forwarded to headquarters for necessary action by 14th February to enable management under affiliation with the PPP to complete the exercise before the dissolution of the present government/assembly. There is therefore no ambiguity about the BISP management's intent. The courts may request the minutes of the 15th BISP board meeting dated 28th June last year to ascertain whether the Board did direct its DGs/Directors to send confirmation cases to headquarters at that time.
Pakistan People's Party has traditionally relied on using ministries/departments as well as autonomous entities as employment bureaus. Thus this latest attempt by the PPP-led coalition government would surprise no one. It is significant that one of the major causes of the collapse of several institutions is attributed to over-staffing with political supporters that simply makes the entity economically unviable. Rightsizing has consequently been one of the major conditions imposed by bilateral as well as multilateral aid organisations with the objective of ensuring that the state-owned entities are operated on sound economic principles.
Those PPP loyalists who may have identified this particular measure as a clever means to bypass the ECP order banning recruitment must be taken to task as it has no doubt tarnished the party's image; and left a bad taste in not only members of the opposition but also members of the general public thereby bringing the government's intent in holding fair and transparent elections into question. The PPP-led government has completed its five-year term, a landmark achievement, of which it should rightly be proud however leaving the public with the impression that it is actively engaged in pre-poll rigging would negate its claims that it is committed to democracy and opposed to pre-poll rigging.