Missing You! SPSC

It is disappointing to pen these painful thoughts for such an apex recruiting Agency of Sindh that kept serving the people of  Sindh for decades and kept providing respectable elite Civil services jobs to the underprivileged people regardless of their colour, creed or religion.

SPSC remained the only hope for the youth to get elevated civil service jobs such as EX-PCS and Secretariat services as well as Jobs in other cadres from  BS-16 to BS-20  in various departments of Sindh.

Unfortunately, SPSC bears the brunt of Malpractices and corrupt practices of its chairman and Members who tempered with the result of Meritorious candidates and passed their blue-eyed Candidates through nepotism and favouritism and deprived the deserving candidates of getting Elite Civil Service slots.

The jobs were reportedly sold like commodities stabbing meritocracy and bringing in a swarm of inefficient and ineligible bureaucracy that played in the hands of feudal lords.

The saga starts from tempering the marks of candidates of CCE 2003 that took almost two decades in litigation but so far no respite has been provided to the candidates/petitioners who approached the Sindh High court to knock the door for justice.

Despite winning the case at all platforms and getting favourable reports i.e Departmental Enquiry, Anti Corruption Establishment Report, NAB report and Judicial Enquiry reports, it was proven that those recommended for appointment were not eligible as most of the candidates were fail in written part and Interview. Even some of the candidates who did not appear in the test were declared as pass.

The result of the final recommended candidates was tempered. The marks on the face sheet of answer copies were changed as per the reports surfaced.

It is worthy to mention here that those appointed through unfair means and tempered results, surprisingly promoted to the next Grades from time to time and now they are in Grade 19.

Later, in CCE 2013 there was a similar hue and cry about tempered results and bribery amounting to millions, the Sindh High Court passed its judgment making the result Null and void and directed SPSC to conduct both written and interviews afresh.

Thus hundreds of candidates bore the brunt of Malpractices of Commission authorities and many who got recommendations as Section Officers, ACs, AD labour etc were shocked. They wondered why they were punished for the fault of some unscrupulous people that earned a bad name for the SPSC.

Though being disappointed and dejected from the Honourable Courts decision, the candidates reappeared in the written and Interview but shockingly very few got through since the majority of candidates who had cleared the exam previously, could not qualify even written part and Interview.

The Education standards in Sindh have already deteriorated alarmingly, yet those who toil and work hard in the hopes of being the part of Elite Civil service, got disillusioned and dejected when the news broke that all the appointments were made either on payment of huge bribes or political support, plunging the poor hardworking and talented youth into the darkness of Disappointment, Dejection and Hopelessness.

These incidents were still fresh in the minds of candidates when they got the shocking news that Sindh High Court Hyderabad Bench announced yet another shocking judgment that jolted the candidates.

The saga starts from tempering the marks of candidates of CCE 2003 that took almost two decades in litigation but so far no respite has been provided to the candidates/petitioners who approached the Sindh High court to knock the door for justice.

 The judgment suspended the SPSC act and made the Recruitments of CCE 2018, Medical Officers and others null and void. Even it suspended all the Members including Chairman and Secretary. The judgments directed the Sindh Government to legislate a new SPSC act making Governor as head to appoint Chairman and Members instead of Chief Minister Sindh.

There have been several interpretations of Law experts regarding the impact of judgment that whether the judgment applies to mentioned Recruitments i.e CCE 2018, Health Department Medical Officers or all the Recruitments to date.

Even the Honourable High court ordered to make the SPSC website offline until the new SPSC act is promulgated.

The news had serious repercussions on the future of youth in Sindh, especially those who had passed the exam with hard work and are serving in the field for almost three years. The clouds of uncertainty have engulfed them and they are waiting for their fate since their training has also been discontinued. There is no clarification whether their services are discontinued in the light of Judgment or still intact. It will be clear after the outcome of the appeal in the Supreme court of Pakistan Karachi registry.

Their future is bleak. Even, several candidates had either appeared in the written tests of various departments and cleared including those who were awaiting Interview results. There were some candidates whose interviews were scheduled but all in vain.

With each passing day, the suspicion and fears are mounting with concerns that whether the SPSC will be restored with the appointment of a new chairman, Members and Secretary or it will remain in a dormant state since the Honourable court has not given any time frame to Sindh Government for legislation and transfer of powers of appointment of Chairman and Members to Governor so that concerns of candidates may be addressed.

Furthermore, the decision also impacted the recruitment process of lecturers in the college Education Department where more than 6000 lecturers were to be appointed and even written tests were conducted from over 100000 candidates and subsequently their results were uploaded on the SPSC website.

Ironically, public service commissions of other provinces such as PPSC, BPSC, KPPSC, AJKPSC and FPSC are Functioning in full swing and the recruitment process in other provinces has been transparent but unfortunately, the Sindh Government has wreaked havoc with all the institutions and did not even spare SPSC -the apex Civil service Recruitment Agency to pursue the meritocracy and transparency in appointment of Civil servants.

Due to misappropriation, mismanagement, nepotism, favouritism and corruption, today the Prestigious body SPSC was forced to close the doors for youth and it has borne the brunt of corrupt souls who have not left any stone unturned to mint money from poor people whose dream to become part of Civil service stood unfulfilled even seems a nightmare. According to some reports if Assistant Commissioners get the seats on the payment of ten million then the poor can only dream of such elevated and lucrative posts and their intelligence, efficiency and talent get rotten if meritocracy is strangulated under the weight of Bribery.

It is high time that our youth should be vocal and raise their voice against the criminal silence of the Sindh Government as the Government has failed miserably to pursue the case in the Supreme Court due to its unwillingness and negligence, leaving hundreds of youth falling prey to unemployment, disappointment and disillusionment.

The Chief Justice Supreme court of Pakistan and Chief Justice High Court of Sindh are humbly appealed to review the decision and pass orders to Sindh Government for legislation to restore SPSC and appointment of new Chairman and Members by Governor as practised in other provinces so that future of youth could be saved and they should be prevented from getting overage.

Furthermore, in the upcoming CCE 2022, 20 years of General age relaxation may be granted so that the delay caused by various judgments of the Honourable Courts due to corrupt practices of Commission may be compensated and the level playing field may be provided to candidates to contest Competitive Exam. The courts always provide relief to petitioners but the culprits behind such corrupt practices may also be punished so that future incidents could be averted.

It is further recommended that on the lines of FPSC’s, Section Officers Promotional Exam (SOPE) may be introduced through which lower grade employees having completed 5 to 7 years in departments can be appointed through SPSC as SOs and unlike Transfer to OMG Policy of FPSC, there should be an exam for those in BS-17 and BS-18 officers of other cadres to be part of PMS or PSS. This will help in filling the shortage of civil servants in the provincial secretariat.

It is also recommended that there should be Executive Service where BS-19 officers could be inducted from senior Civil Servants of various departments.

SPSC is the driving force to bring in a bunch of civil bureaucracy, Professionals, Technical hands and other security personnel of higher grade. The dormant state SPSC has already created serious staff shortages and impacted the performance of various departments especially College Education, School Education, Health and Civil Bureaucracy that are in constant need of fresh blood to serve the nation with dignity and dedication.