Is Pakistan’s Least Developed Province Balochistan Getting its Share of Federal Jobs? · Global Voices
Balochistan Point

Screenshot of  a job posting from FPSC's website, which does not include any spots allocated to Balochistan.
This post is an amended version of an article originally written by Adnan Aamir for The Balochistan Point. It is republished on Global Voices as a part of a content sharing agreement.
In Pakistan, federal government jobs are distributed among its four provinces and federally controlled regions according to a prescribed quota determined by their population size. For the country's vast, but least developed and least populated province Balochistan, the quota for federal jobs is 6 percent.
Balochistan Point looked into whether the impoverished province is actually receiving it's federally mandated share from the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), an autonomous body in charge of announcing vacancies and monitoring quotas. The Balochistan Point studied the FPSC's latest advertised vacancies and found that Balochistan was only allocated half of its quota.
On August 2, FPSC announced 156 vacancies in different departments and organizations under federal control. On these jobs, almost all regions were assigned allocations according to their quotes. Punjab is supposed to get 50%, it was allocated 53.2%, Sindh is supposed to get 19%, it was allocated 18%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is supposed to get 11.5%, it was allotted 9.6%. Balochistan was supposed to receive 6%, but it was only allocated half of that: 3%.
Following is a detailed breakup of these jobs with provincial allocation:
Balochistan has been completely ignored in the allocation of important vacancies such as Inspectors for Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Out of 61 vacancies for Inspector FIA, not a single one has been allocated to Balochistan. Even smaller and lesser populated regions like Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been given allocations.
These powerful inspectors, among other duties, can also act as shift in-charge at the FIA immigration check-points at airports. The people of Balochistan often complained about the treatment that they receive at airport immigrations counters.
“We face discrimination at airport check points because the FIA and ANF personnel consider us aliens,” Haji Badr-ud-din a frequent international traveler told The Balochistan Point. He added, “FIA officers form Balochistan, if there are any, should be posted on Airport check points of Quetta and Karachi from where we normally travel.”
Despite repeated attempts by The Balochistan Point to make contact, the Secretary of the FSPC was not available for a comment on their quota rules violation in Balochistan.
The current vacancy announcement by FPSC is not the first time the Balochistan quota has been violated. On July 27, Quetta Electricity Supply Company (QESCO) a federally controlled entity, also violated Balochsitan’s job quota in 45 vacancies that it advertised.
Out of 47 vacancies of BPS-17, . QESCO was asked to stop recruitment process by Chief Secretary of Balochistan after he took notice of the protests from civil society of Balochistan against violation of quota rules.
“In my capacity as a member of different Senate standing committees, I have put up questions with PIA, HEC, CDA, OGDCL, SNGPL, SSGC and other [federal] departments and asked them to explain how they are fulfilling 6 percent quota of Balochistan,” Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini told The Balochistan Point.
Senator Jamaldini further revealed that people of other provinces possessing fake domiciles in Balochistan take jobs on what’s left of Balochsitan’s quota. “DMG officers serving as Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners have issued domicile certificates to their relatives, in huge numbers, which are used to deprive people of Balochistan form their quota in jobs,” claimed Senator Jamaldini.
In a move which was severally criticized by people of Balochistan, last year, the federal government declined to commence recruitment on 3,692 Federal jobs reserved for Balochistan.