Pay for the job

Recently, some public universities from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) advertised their vacant posts through various newspapers. It was astonishing to witness that these institutions asked money, starting from Rs300 and going up to Rs2000, for the submission of job applications. Through this way, varsities will receive thousands of application for a limited number of seats, usually in tens, and can earn good money, often in hundreds of thousands. Many universities are taking equal amount for all the posts, including the post of a lecturer, technicians, librarians or a clerk. In this situation, a skilled person with an inability of paying the fee will suffer.

All institutions do have their admin and HR departments with salaried staff for doing the recruitment work. It is quite unfair to ask money for staffing from people who apply for the job. The government should take notice of the matter and discourage such practices that put a financial burden of people who are not in a strong financial position. More focus should be given to merit. In the meanwhile, universities can explore other ways for generating their funds.

Nadia Kiran

Karachi