ISLAMABAD: The Federal Public Service Commission, in its latest annual report for 2021, identified vacancies as a major challenge, highlighting the PTI government ignored its advice on filling them.
Identifying the challenges, the commission wrote in its 2021 annual report that unfilled vacancies due to non-availability of qualified candidates from underdeveloped segments and non-availability of qualifications and skills for FPSC-advertised vacancies were challenging. In its annual report, the commission also mentioned cases where their advice on appointment extensions and withdrawn vacant posts to the then-government in the year 2021 was not followed.
It said: “Under Section 7 of the FPSC Ordinance, extensions in contract appointments beyond two years require the concurrence of the commission.” During the year 2021, the commission allowed extensions in contract appointments to the employees in 12 cases and issued advice to various ministries, divisions, and departments to forward requisitions for the vacancies to the commission for regular recruitment. “During the year under report, eight cases involving 22 vacancies were withdrawn by requisitioning the ministry, division, or department as per the laid down procedure.” The Federal Public Service Commission reviewed over 9,000 vacant government positions ranging from BS-16 to BS-19 and recommended 1,733 positions for 2021.
In the year 2021, a total of 6,544 vacant posts were under-processed or carried over to the next year by the FPSC, while 22 recommended vacant posts were withdrawn by different ministries, leaving several hundred vacant posts in total.
Out of the total recommended posts by the FPSC in the year 2021, 284 nominations were made against the vacancies reserved for males, 495 against the vacancies reserved for females, and 954 against the vacancies that were open to both males and females, wherein 782 males and 172 females were nominated.
The commission finalised 32 cases involving 104 vacancies reserved for minorities’ quota. Against these vacancies, 77 nominations were made and 27 vacancies could not be filled due to the non-availability of qualified candidates who belonged to minorities. These vacancies have been re-advertised under the same quota.
Out of 1,733 recommendations or nominations for the posts, 134 were against the open merit quota, 31 were against the ICT quota, 857 were against Punjab, 183 were against Sindh (Rural), 127 were against Sindh (Urban), 188 were against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 96 were against Balochistan, 57 were against GB/FATA, and 33 were against the Azad Jammu and Kashmir quota. In contrast, 29 nominations were issued for positions in the Gilgit-Baltistan government. All these nominations were made for posts BS-16 to BS-19.
Out of all the recommendations, the highest was made in the Ministry of Defence, which was followed by the Revenue Division and the Ministry of Interior, respectively. A total of 685 recommendations were made in the Ministry of Defence, 186 in the Revenue Division, 108 in the Ministry of Interior, 96 in the Federal Education and Professional Training, 95 in the Cabinet Secretariat (Aviation Division), 91 each in the Federal Board of Revenue and National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, 85 in the Ministry of Communications, 44 in the Ministry of Railways, 32 in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and 31 in the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, 16 in Finance, Revenue, and Economic Affairs; 11 in Statistics Division; 10 each in Intelligence Bureau, Establishment Division, and Foreign Affairs; five in National Accountability Bureau; four each in Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Water Resources, Federal Public Service Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, and HRD; three each in National History and Literary Heritage Division and Cabinet Division; two each in Ministry of Industries and Production, PM office, Ministry of Climate Change, and Cabinet Secretariat; and one each in Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Postal Services, Textile Industry, Human Rights, States, and Frontier Regions;
During the fiscal year under review, the commission advertised 158 new cases of recruitment involving 1,921 positions, receiving 509,955 applications. Out of which, one case involving one vacancy was withdrawn by the sponsoring ministry. The remaining advertised fresh cases are under process.
In addition, the commission reported 276 positions as unfilled in 46 cases due to the non-availability of eligible candidates. These cases include 15 complete failure cases involving 46 positions and 31 partially reported failure cases involving 230 positions. Out of such unfilled vacancies, three were about merit: ICT-1, Punjab-97, Sindh (Rural)-47, Sindh (Urban)-33, KP-27, Balochistan-30, GB/FATA-19, AJK-15, and four vacancies were reported failures in the recruitment cases of the GB government.
