FROM India to America, people who get inducted into civil service go through a rigorous screening and competitive process. There is no quota for recruitment in civil service across the globe on the basis ofrace,ethnicity or area.

But in Pakistan, the process is marred by the quota system, which was put in place decades ago to help students of backward areas to join civil service. It has been several decades but we still have the quota system.

Every year bright candidates from Punjab cannot get allocation owing to quota seats given to less developed provinces. The question that comes to a sane mind is: how come a candidate with a low merit position joins the foreign serviceor any other service, while candidate with higher merit fails to get allocation because of the quota? This quota system is not only discriminatory but against basic human rights.

If this discriminatory system continues how can we ensure a prosperous, sustainable and a just Pakistan? Muhammad Arslan Lahore