5pc job quota for minorities, says minister

Monday, October 26, 2009
By Our Correspondent

LAHORE

THE Punjab government has issued a notification to reserve five percent quota for minorities in the total jobs in the government departments in the province.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs and Human Rights Kamran Michael said the quota would be reserved for minorities (non-Muslims) as defined in the Article-260 (3)(b) of the Constitution of Pakistan. He said the quota would not apply to vacancies reserved for recruitment on the basis of competitive examination conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission, recruitment made by promotion or transfer in accordance with relevant rules, short-term vacancies likely to last for less than six months, isolated posts in which vacancies occurred only occasionally and vacancies reserved for minorities for which qualified candidates were not available. He said the vacancies would be treated as unreserved and filled on merit.

Kamran Michael said that due to equal rights to the minorities could result in establishment of a democratic society. He said that the minorities had not only played their role in creation of Pakistan but were also performing an important role in strengthening the country. He said the Christian educational institutions were nationalised in the past which affected their performance. He said that went to Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif who fulfilled his promise regarding equal rights to minorities and allocated five percent quota in the government jobs for minorities in the province.

The minister said the PML-N leadership was supporting minorities as per the sayings of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

He said the Punjab government had given scholarship of Rs.1.5 crore to the students of minorities, adding that for the first time in the history with the cooperation of Tevta, five percent quota had been allocated in technical institutions for minorities and initially, Punjab government had allocated budget of Rs.1.25 crore which would further be increased.

Provincial Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights Khalil Tahir Sindhu said the five percent quota would be in addition to those applicants who would be selected on open merit on any government vacancy. He said according to the quota, the number of Christian teachers in 34,000 educators to be recruited would be 1,750.

He said that Christian community has always played positive role in promotion of education in Pakistan and appointment of Christian youth in such a large number would help in improving the standard of education in Punjab.