175,000 aspirants for 150 vacancies in Islamabad civic body

ISLAMABAD - Indicative of the rampant unemployment in Pakistan, a staggering 175,000 candidates have applied for 150 vacancies in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) leaving officials struggling to cope with the rush.

In the first phase of the recruitment process, over 22,000 candidates appeared in the examination test for 30 vacancies of assistants in the civic body, with the process taking four days to complete.

In next phase, tests for vacant positions of upper and lower division clerks would be

conducted. The CDA is facing severe inconvenience in dispatching letters to candidates owing to their large number, Online news agency reported.

Last week, some 25,000 candidates had applied for 5,000 vacancies of constables in the Sindh Police, and chaos broke out during the form submission process Jan 17, forcing the police to baton charge the aspirants.

The Sindh Police had advertised for 5,000 vacancies. Of these, 2,000 personnel would be deployed in the Karachi police and the remaining 3,000 in interior Sindh, Online news agency reported.

Though matriculation was listed as the minimum qualification, many of the candidates had graduation and masters degrees.

Some candidates alleged that police personnel appointed for scrutinising the registration forms were taking bribes to forward the applications and senior police officers were conniving in this.

Dozens of candidates said that last year too, they had submitted registration forms and were not appointed despite receiving medical clearance letters.

Some police personnel said merit was ignored due to pressure from political high-ups.

Pakistan’s unemployment is estimated at 7.40 percent of its workforce, which is roughly 50 percent of its population of 167 million.