QUETTA: The Government, through a notification, had withdrawn around 70 executive officers from administrative and other duties and asked them to report to the Services and General Administration Department for posting in their parent Departments. Some of them were posted at important positions in the district administration in many parts of Balochistan.

A section of bureaucracy had challenged their postings retaining the 70 executive officers as administrative officers or serving the Secretariat Group and the superior court had upheld the petition against them asking the Balochistan Government to post them back to their own department for the purpose they were recruited.

In a way, the court barred the Provincial Government in posting the executive officers from administrative duties or performing job as part of the officers of the Secretariat Group since they are not from the specific cadres. The Balochistan High Court vacated a stay order issued earlier in this case restraining the Balochistan Government from removing the officers from their present positing. However, the situation had changed following the Supreme Court orders in this regard sending back the executive officers to their department.

After decades, an attempt was made to improve the working of the Provincial Government by recruiting young officers to serve the Government departments. A sizable number of young officers were recruited through a competitive examination and they were selected adopting a proper and legal procedure which had never been questioned.  They are not political appointees in any sense. They qualified the examination and cleared interview and tests and afterwards they were given positing by the competent authority.

Gradually, they were posted on their present positions and they generally performed well and there were least or nominal complaints against them as expected generally. They got experience and learnt a lot through the years and now considered as middle cadre service people who should not be dumped in the waste basket.

It is the duty of the Government and political thinkers or chosen representatives of the people to find a way out to accommodate those mid-carrier officers so that they should continue to serve the people of Balochistan needing hundreds of thousands of skilled men in different field in near future.

Balochistan is facing shortage of skilled work force and qualified group of officers to run the administration. At the moment, the Provincial Government is looking towards the Federal Government for sending experienced officers to ensure good governance and run the administration more smoothly.

There is dire need to meet the requirement of the society in Balochistan by training and educating more and more people for public service. Not only the new batch of officers should be recruited on priority basis and but also the services of the Executive Officers should be utilized in the greater interest of the society in general besides protecting the interest and carrier of the officers.

We suggest that they all should be sent for further training and attend course at the national Administrative institutions so that they should be merged with the Provincial Civil Service of Balochistan and their carrier is defended.

Or they may be allowed to appear in mid-carrier examinations organized by the Balochistan Public Service Commission or they be allowed to attend a course at the National Defence University in Islamabad to be adjusted in the Provincial cadre in a way.

In any case, the talent in Balochistan should not go waste for political or other reasons. We will suggest to the Chief Minister to accommodate the Executive Officers on priority basis and open new avenues for their carrier in any service group in Balochistan.

In this case, we are not undermining the legitimate interests of the Provincial Civil Service and the Secretariat Group and merely suggesting that the relieved officers should be accommodated in the administrative service so that young talent should not go waste for any reason. At the same time, the legitimate interests of others should not be undermined.

There is unlimited scope of economic development in Balochistan in all fields of human activities. Sooner or later hundreds of foreign companies will come to Balochistan once the Gwadar deepwater Port is built, developed and made operational as the Mekran Coast will be the real hub of international trade and development of industries.

The massive foreign investment being made in Chah Bahar, merely 72 kilometers from Gwadar, should be an eye opener to the development planners in Balochistan.

At the same time, Federal Government is going to hand over the Saindak Metal Mining complex in Chagai to Balochistan Government in next couple of months. The Provincial Government should not extend the lease to the Chinese company. We suggest that these people should be trained to handle much bigger economic projects of Balochistan which included Saindak copper and gold Project, Reko Dik, Iron and steel projects and score of other metal mining projects in Chagai district alone.

Balochistan needs a very big team of competent and honest officers to run the huge economic projects under the discipline of the Balochistan Government disallowing the foreign exploiters in the garb of investors to loot and plunder the resources of Balochistan.

All the foreign companies from any country, friendly or unfriendly, should be barred from making any investment in the sensitive economic sector, including the metal mining. Balochistan should retain state monopoly in copper and gold, iron and steel sector disallowing foreign investment or foreign participation in all forms.

There is a general view that foreign investors take away 90 percent of the wealth from Balochistan and leave less than 10 per cent for the local population, including the Balochistan Government. Such a deal should not be acceptable. Once Balochistan operates all its own projects efficiently, it can retain 100 per cent revenue for the future generations. Thus partnership should not be accepted.  People know what had happened once the friendly Government of Pakistan had handed over the Saindak copper and gold project to a Chinese company, Balochistan received a nominal and negligible amount from the profit from Saindak in shape of royalty.

Reko Dik project is comprising trillions of dollar and similarly, the Iron Ore or steel project is said to be much bigger than Reko Dik. Thus the Executive officers should make a pool of competent human resource to run all the mega economic projects worth trillions of US dollars.