Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Abolishes Job Quota System, Adopts Merit-Based Recruitment
The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has formally abolished the quota system that had been in place for appointments in its government departments. This was done after the Supreme Court recently abolished the quota system. In a notification issued by the Chief Secretary of KP, all government departments are instructed to appoint people strictly on merit.
For this, the Supreme Court had decreed that any job appointments made without merit ran the risk of violating the constitution. On the other hand, compensation packages for families of law enforcement officers and civil servants killed in terrorist attacks do not fall within the new set of rules. Those will stay the same.
The Punjab government has also changed its rules for recruiting staff members. The provincial government had recently eliminated Rule 17-A of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974. The rule allowed families of deceased government employees to get jobs in the provincial government. The update, announced by a notification from the Secretary of Regulation Services and General Administration, is a major shift in the civil service policy of Punjab.
With the deletion of Rule 17-A, such job entitlements for the families of deceased government workers are no longer available, which would signal a shift towards more merit-based hiring in Punjab as well.
