Lahore: The Punjab government has decided to lift the recruitment ban on human resource for foreign-funded projects, a news source reported. This includes the projects in the province being worked out under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative. With this move, the provincial government reportedly aims to boost the pace of development work on these projects.
The standing committee of the cabinet on finance and development took this decision upon the request of Secretary Planning & Development (P&D) Iftikhar Ali.
Ali briefed the committee regarding the cabinet’s ban on all recruitments from (basic scale) BS-1 to BS-16, excluding BS-17. These officials fall under the preview of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
The planning and development board consequently requested clarification if the recruitment had been banned for development projects too. To this, the Service & General Administration Department (S&GAD) responded that the ban applied to all recruitments.
Ali stated that this ban had not only affected the pace of development work. It had also managed to keep the projects’ expenditure below the benchmark due to vacant project posts.
He clarified that these posts resulted in no long-term liability for the government, as they get abolished following a given project’s completion date.
In light of this information, the standing committee lifted the ban for recruitments against posts of ongoing foreign-funded projects.
