Quota System in Pakistan

The quota system in Pakistan was established to give every region of the country representation in institutions according to their population.^[1] The Civil Service of Pakistan selects only 7.5% of the applicants by merit, education, qualification and experience. The quota system in Pakistan has many similarities with reservation in India which is its neighbor.^[2]^[3]

University and college admission

There is quota system in Pakistan in admission to universities and colleges where a certain number of places are reserved a priori to applicants who have completed their pre-university studies rural and undeveloped regions of the country. Candidates with low grades (marks or GPA) may qualify for admission to Medical college and Engineering college if they were from rural areas.^[4]

University of Karachi is the only public university serving nearly 20 million people in Karachi. According to the University of Karachi “Only a few students from rural Sindh are rejected”.^[5] The Government of Sindh has established many universities in smaller towns of Sindh but the standard of education is still not high. The medical college and engineering colleges in Karachi also have quotas that limit the qualified students while admitting the rural students with lower academic achievements.^[6]

In 2014, a notification issued by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) created a storm of controversy among the medical students of Pakistan. According to notification, 2014-15 admissions would be held on quota system rather than open merit i.e. 50% seats in medical colleges of Pakistan were reserved for girls and 50% for boys.^[7] But there was silence on the side of University of Health Sciences, Lahore so students could not guess whether quota system would be applied from 2014 or next year.^[8] However, few days before the issuance of UHS's first merit list , the notification was challenged in Lahore High Court. On October 29 , Lahore High Court took the decision that quota system was illegal, as it would be unfair for girls so 2014-15 admissions would be held on open merit.^[9]

Civil Service

The Civil Service of Pakistan selects only 7.5% of the applicants by merit, education, qualification and experience^[10] while the 92.5% are selected by using quota system.

Merit 7.5%
Punjab (Including Federal Area of Islamabad) 50%
Sindh (Including Urban Sindh) 19%
The Share of Sindh will be further sub-allocated in the following ratio:
Urban Areas, namely Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur 40% of 19% or 7.6%.
Rural Areas i.e. rest of Sindh (Excluding Karachi, Hyderabad & Sukkur, 60% of 19% or 11.4%)
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 11.5
Balochistan 6%
Gilgit–Baltistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas 4%
Azad Kashmir 2%
Women Reserved Quota: 10% Women quota will be observed / calculated from the share of each province / region

Reserved political positions

Quotas in Pakistan were introduced in order to give equal opportunity for jobs, representation in assemblies and educational institutions to women, non-Muslims and people from under developed rural areas.

Provincial Assembly	General	Women	Non-Muslim	Total
Balochistan	51	11	3	65
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa	99	22	3	124
Punjab	297	66	8	371
Sindh	130	29	9	168
Total	577	128	23	728

Armed Forces

The Sind Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Pakistan Army established on 1 July 1980. Prior to this date there had been no regiment in the Pakistan Army specifically intended to recruit primarily from the Sindhi population.^[11] After 1989 the proportion of actual Sindhis in the Regiment was increased to over 50%. The Sind Regimental Centre is located in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. The Infantry Regiments in Pakistan Army are known by the name of the province. We have Punjab Regiment, Baluch Regiment, Frontier Force Regiment and AK Regiment. This is just a symbolic representation. Sindh was the only province without a regiment to its name. Therefore it may not be correct to say that the sole aim of establishing Sindh Regiment was to recruit sindhi's in the army.

Criticism

In 1973, the Government of Pakistan imposed quota system in whole country where the employment and admissions to all colleges and universities was based on Provincial population. Government of Sindh divided it further on urban, rural and domicile district level. This was introduced due to higher segment of population, which resided in rural areas, had virtually no representation in government employment and in Universities admissions. All the universities were in Urban centres, were run by urban population, people from rural areas were discouraged and rejected to get admission, like it is still the case in Karachi University. The quota system in the province of Sindh was imposed in 1973 for 40 years but in 2013 it was extended for another 20 years.^[12] In 2033, it will be 60 years of quota system in Sindh and according to some it will be extended for another 20 years. The criticism on Government of Sindh is that even after making huge investment in rural areas for the last 40 years it has failed to raise the educational standards in the rural areas.^[13] The huge investments in rural Sindh infrastructure and educational institutions in last 40 years has been mostly wasted due to the poor planning, political corruption, feudalism and apathy of the rural population. Karachi is the largest commercial city of Pakistan and the Muhajirs though not more than 50% of the total population are still the main stakeholder in this city and are against the quota system as they are educated from private schools which have high calibre of education than government schools in rural Sindh. Muttahida Qaumi Movement banks votes on the slogan that the quota system has hit the Muhajir community. The nationalization of Pakistan's educational institutions in 1972 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party impacted the Muhajirs hardest as their privately run educational institutions were brought in government fold. Then the quota system was introduced that limited their access to the public service employment.

Constitutional rights

The 1973 constitution of Pakistan clearly describes in Chapter I titled, “Fundamental Rights and Principles of Policy”, of Article 27 Clause I about safeguarding the fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan against the discrimination in the federal and provisional government services in these words:

The constitution gives equal rights:

“No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the ground only of race, religion, caste, sex, residence or place of birth.”

The quota system limits the constitutional rights:

“Provided that, for a period not exceeding twenty years from the commencing day, posts may be reserved for persons belonging to any class or area to secure their adequate representation in the service of Pakistan.”

References

External links

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