Editorial: Bogus domicile certificates & employment opportunities

With the announcement of thousands of jobs for jobless youth in Balochistan, tens of thousands of domicile certificates and local certificates had been issued to genuine or non genuine people in all parts of Balochistan. The Provincial Minister for Irrigation, Sardar Mohammad Aslam Bizenjo, was the first one to point out this racket and he issued a statement in the print media to demand a ban on issuing fresh domicile certificates. Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani took serious notice to this disclosure by one of his cabinet colleagues and banned issuing fresh domicile certificates and asked the Commissioners of all the Six Divisions to check and verify those certificates ensuring that they were genuine.

There were authentic and credible reports that thousands of people had rushed to the district headquarters in Quetta, Jaffarabad, Naseerabad, Lasbela, Loralai, Musakhel and other areas to get a domicile or local certificate to make themselves eligible to file an application for jobs announced for the Baloch people. The Provincial government had announced that 5000 jobs would be created and given to jobless youth of Balochistan as part of the Balochistan Package. Similarly, the federal government had also announced to induct more than 10,000 Baloch youth possessing Master’s Degrees in its Internship Programme.

Both the schemes were well received in Balochistan and thousands of people applied for the jobs. Political activists in Balochistan had called upon the government to clarify whether the posts were for Baloch youth or for others. It is not known that the posts will be distributed on district basis by taking population as its basic criteria.

However, the track record of the provincial government is not clear as some of the former provincial ministers were found guilty selling the government jobs to highest bidders denying the genuine candidates. The Balochs had long standing complaints that they had been denied jobs by designs and jobs were given to others on the basis of Balochistan. This time, the Baloch youths are more interested in getting jobs following a marathon struggle for their rights facing difficulties for decades and not years. Hopefully, the government will ensure that genuine people should get the jobs first and the ministers and officials be barred from selling the posts in the interest of people.