Pakistan (اسلامی جمہوریہ پاکستان)

Introduction of Pakistan

Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( اسلامی†جمہوریہ†پاکستان†) also known as Pakistan locates in the west of South Asia. The term “Pakistan” itself also mean the land of clean, and the holy land. Although different religions group exist in Pakistan however, up to 95% of the population in Pakistan are Islamic. The national language is Hindustani, very similar content to its neighbor country, India. Pakistan was also colonized by Great Britain for 200 years because back then it was considered as part of India. Pakistan declared its independence at 1956, then east part of Pakistan later detached and confederation as the Republic of Bangladesh. The official currency Pakistan uses are their own institutional Pakistan Rupees. Pakistan Rupees has higher value than the India currency, which is 1 to 0.46. Even though Pakistan’s currency is stronger than the Indian Rupees however India has a stronger overall economy with a growth domestic product (Hereinafter as GDP) of 2.579 trillion USD comparing to Pakistan’s GDP 305 billion USD [1], the Pakistan’s economy seems very insignificant.

Overview of the Country

Pakistan has a population of 197 million that ranks the fifth largest population on earth and their population is still growing [2], therefore massive potentials can take place when the market is mature. Pakistan has a lower GDP than its neighboring countries like India and Iran. Pakistan has a decent GDP economy that ranks 41th place in the world [3]. Although Pakistan has a smaller economy to India, however Pakistan has a similar GDP growth rate of 5.7% as to India with 6% growth rate [1]. As for a developing nation like Pakistan, it’s important to understand the major sectors that are operating within the country. According to the Government of Pakistan Department of Statistic, their major sectors are agriculture, services, and manufacture [4]. Overall, Pakistan has strong ties and influences from China because of the trading relations and geo-political perspectives.

Recruitment Practices

Before to mention about the recruitment practices in Pakistan, it is important to understand what period Pakistan is experiencing today. Before, the country mostly relies on export of agriculture, however as the global market becomes more competitive Pakistan begins its transformation as well. However, their development process was slower than other countries. Pakistan begun its investment into technology, formal companies on services around the year of 2005 [5]. Back then the country does not have a clear idea of Human Resource (HR) yet, nor any HR polices were established in small middle enterprises (SME). Therefore, the recruitment process was blurry about its recruitment channels, methods of targeting candidates, tools for communications, and the standard recruitment procedures. As to today, most SME’s recruitment practices is still not structured, and recruitment evaluations becomes blurry, thus there is a lot of uncertainty in the work force that may not have the right candidate for the suitable job. With a hazy HR structure like in Pakistan, it will eventually damage the company’s overall performance in long-term [5]. Nevertheless, the overall recruitment process still needs improvement, because it’s the company’s responsibility and interest to recruit the appropriate applicant, but reports reveals that most job postings regardless is online or advertisements, proper job descriptions and proper job requirements are missing. The reason for inefficient recruitment practises is because of the insufficient funding’s to the HR department from the company [6]. is The main recruitment channels are very traditional in Pakistan, such as big companies posting jobs on Sunday national dailies or getting employees through agencies. The recruitments that are visible online are high tech companies or government jobs, the major channels are more in person.

Selection practices

In most countries, commonly HR selection practices will go through three major identification, those are known to be the KSA, Knowledge Skill and Ability. In most times, HR department will check applicants KSA, and check its validity. However, Pakistan hardly meet the minimum standards of checking each applicants background information’s. Therefore, the major tool HR departments will use during the selection process is through their observations and determinations [5]. Within such power like this, HR departments can be very corrupted, and it can generate an extremely unfair selection environment for every applicant. Not only companies do not provide the sufficient funding’s to HR departments, the major working environment dislikes the exitance of HR departments because in their perspectives, HR’s recruitment and selection practices are bureaucratic, waste of time and money. With the unfavored trends towards HR, fewer developments will be taken into place and Pakistan will need more time for the working environment to be more comprehensively developed.

Miscellaneous information

Unions

Trade-Unions exist as a form that would fight for workers’ rights and workers does not need authorization from any department to join a union. On the flip side, workers are only allowed to join one union at a time [7]. It is written in Pakistan’s constitution law that every worker’s have the equal rights to join a union. The strategies that were used to fight for workers rights were usually through collective bargaining. Most of worker’s right are stated clearly, however the union’s impact level are very low because union does not take hard stands when it comes to working conditions or other benefits, in 2019 Pakistan factory that contains 500 workers are still complaining about the harsh conditions they work in, and they cannot complain because they then face the risk of getting fired [8]. The major unions that are in Pakistan are below:

Pakistan Transport & General Workers Federation
All Pakistan Trade Union Federation
Pakistan Workers Federation
Pakistan Labour Federation

Industry Relations

Job security is a huge problem in Pakistan because of the informal sectors that gives more power to employers. Dismissing an employee is very easily done, because it’s hardly any situation that can backfire to the company. The reason is local employees in the SME class cannot afford lawyers to fight their rights, unions has low enforcement level, thus employees are exposed into a very unfair business environment in Pakistan. Another unethical practices in Pakistan are employers will fire the internship employee at the end of their three months just to avoid the employee can get the job automatically within three months.[5] Therefore, enterprises in Pakistan should be more responsible and ethical.

References

2. Worldometers.info. (2019). Pakistan Population (2019) – Worldometers. [online] Available at: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/pakistan-population/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

3. Product, G. (2019). Pakistan GDP – Gross Domestic Product 2018. [online] countryeconomy.com. Available at: https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/pakistan [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

4. Pbs.gov.pk. (2019). What are major sectors of the economy of Pakistan? | Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. [online] Available at: http://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/what-are-major-sectors-economy-pakistan [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

5. Syed, J. (2019). Recruitment Practices in Pakistan – HR.com. [online] Hr.com. Available at: https://www.hr.com/en/communities/staffing_and_recruitment/recruitment-practices-inpakistan_eaczhr9f.html [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

6. Zulfiqar, A. (2019). 10 Basic Challenges of Recruitment in Pakistan. [online] Allied Consultants. Available at: https://www.alliedc.com/10-basic-challenges-of-recruitment-in-pakistan/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

7. Union, T. (2019). What is Trade Union? Know more about Trade Union in Pakistan. [online] Paycheck.pk. Available at: https://paycheck.pk/labour-laws/legal-advice/trade-union [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].

8. Tabassum, R. (2019). “No Room to Bargain” | Unfair and Abusive Labor Practices in Pakistan. [online] Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/01/23/no-room-bargain/unfair-and-abusive-labor-practices-pakistan [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].