IT has been five years since Mohammad Talha — who lives in Usmania Colony, near Shimla Pahari — graduated from the Punjab University with a degree in business management. Being a first-generation university graduate, his accomplishment was celebrated by the entire biradari in the area where he lives. Talha recalls how his uncles, who consider themselves tight with the main political leaders of the area, told him they would move heaven and hell to get him a government job; after all, he had earned it. They told him to wait for a while till a suitable vacancy opened up. Five years on, the only government jobs his uncles have managed to get him considered for were of a peon and a constable.

Before the local government elections in 2015, the candidates of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) approached his uncles to ask for the biradari vote and promised them three to four pakki (government) jobs for their families, Talha recalls, adding that the promises of providing government employment became so popular that an independent candidate backed out of the election recognising an impending defeat. The idea was that a local government backed by the PML-N, situated in the heart of a PML-N stronghold (NA-122), would be perfectly positioned to make good on their election promises. “(But) they couldn’t get us any pakki jobs. They told us there were no vacancies because of hiring freeze in various public departments… we could get contractual jobs in the government, at best,” he says, and adds: “That’s not what we were promised.”

A promise to remember

For a demographic entity that comprises 46 per cent of the registered voters and over 60pc of the country’s population, the question of jobs and possibility of a secure future is a key campaigning point for mainstream political parties. While the youth bulge has been pitched as an opportunity by most parties, it also represents a growing crisis of unemployment. Nearly every party has prioritised the issue in its manifesto, but the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has gone a step further and promised to create 10 million jobs over the next five years.

According to the International Labour Organisation’s report entitled “World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2017”, even though the country’s economy has grown at a respectable rate (5.2pc for 2018) it has not meant more jobs, especially for the youth whose unemployment rate hovers around 9.9pc.

Umer, a resident of Cooper Road, who graduated from university last year, says the way it works for his biradari is that candidates for provincial assembly seats visit their elders and provide certain assurances, the most important of them being related to jobs, and ask for their votes. “Those who give the party funds as well get more assurances and promises of jobs above grade 8,” he says, adding that recently a woman MPA candidate from the PML-N asked him to campaign for her in exchange for a pakki job. “I already know that’s not going to happen,” he says.

PML-N candidate for NA-130 Khawaja Hassan says the provincial government has over the past five years created thousands of jobs in line departments and companies, and focused on merit. “When I was mayor of Lahore in 1998-99, we barely had three engineers overseeing solid waste management of the entire city… the Lahore Waste Management Company now has 70 to 80 engineers doing that job and you can see a difference in output,” he says, adding that the Orange Line Metro Train will create 5,000 jobs.

The jobs are given on a contract basis lasting three years, he concedes, but adds that they pay more than the permanent government jobs. As one of the proponents behind the Punjab government’s focus on public-private partnerships, Mr Hassan understands why people would prefer secure jobs but stresses that since the salaries paid by companies are higher than what permanent job holders get, it is up to the employees to invest their money wisely. “We wanted to retain the right to hire and fire, because we were running these companies on a corporate model, parallel to line departments which were riddled with rampant corruption,” he says.

If it comes to power, the PML-N has promised to focus on schemes that would encourage self-employment (through interest-free loans, social entrepreneurship, investment in the IT sector) and maximum export of highly skilled workers. It hopes to “create a launch pad for the youth to simultaneously be producers (as entrepreneurs) and consumers (as productive workers) of jobs”. Its manifesto promises to “focus on fostering a culture of innovation, competitive advantage, reduce regulatory burden and provide financial markets a boost”.

Many second-tier government employees have fond memories of working under the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government of 2008. It didn’t improve the working of the departments, many agree, but it was a labour-friendly government. “We had funds for our projects, staff, better salaries and a sense of security that the government at the centre will not mow us down at whim,” says an employee of the Services and General Administration Department, who hails from Multan.

One million jobs

The PPP has promised to provide jobs to more than one million Pakistanis each year for the next five years by facilitating the private sector in improving productive capacity. Its manifesto recognises the need to create jobs in rural areas, and promises to employ off-season agricultural workers in labour-intensive activities such as canal lining, watercourse and canal cleaning, and public works schemes for embankments and roads.

The unemployment crisis in districts of south Punjab is worse than at the centre, says an employee of the Population Welfare Department from Lodhran. There is a shortage of labourers in the agriculture sector but a majority of college graduates are unemployed as well, he says. “We have a large informal home-based industry which the government could focus on and improve.”

Nauman Qaiser, the PTI’s candidate for NA-124 in Lahore, agrees. He proposes creating networks of skilled workers to allow them a better chance of earning. “We need to make investments in small businesses viable for people and encourage their growth,” he says.

The youth of the Walled City are dejected as far as their future is concerned because they can no longer rely on the biradari and political networks that once offered patronage and a way to get them jobs in the formal sector, and many of them fall into drug addiction, he says. “Political party representatives in power take a lot of money from people and ‘sell’ them jobs… I know of people who have paid them up to Rs3m for an ASI-level job,” he adds.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2018