It has become increasingly common and easy to attain a domicile in any province at any given time. Even foreigners can attain a desired domicile if they wish it. This has adversely affected jobs and the admission quota in various universities. Candidates studying in big cities attain domiciles within smaller cities to get admission into their favoured universities. A similar case can be observed in the job market. Several aspiring individuals from Punjab qualify for competitive examinations but remain unallocated due to widespread competition. Thus, they instead look towards other regions such as those in Balochistan or rural Sindh for selection.
In 1973, a quota system was devised to allocate federal government jobs among all provinces based on population. This system was established to ensure that underdeveloped provinces and territories of Pakistan do not get left out of the decision-making process. Although this system is commendable in principle, the people of Sindh have not benefited from it due to the circulation of fake domicile certificates issued to people from other provinces.
Federal government jobs might not be a big issue in other provinces, but in the case of Sindh, they are a major one. Firstly because there already exists a negligible representation of the people of Sindh in the federal apparatus, and if no more people are hired, the existing share will further decline. The second reason is the rampant unemployment in the province where government jobs provincial and federal are the main source of employment. Therefore, depriving Sindh of its federal jobs adversely increases unemployment within the province.
This systematic deprivation of employment is made possible due to the issuing of fake domicile certificates. In every district, the Deputy Commissioner a remnant of the colonial past issues domicile certificates to the people. This led to a great deal of dogmatism, and as per estimates, the figure of such illegal domiciles reaches as high as those in the tens of thousands. With people who possess such domiciles certificates having never visited Sindh in their lives.
SYED TAHIR RASHDI,
Sindh.