The Government Job Trap: Why Waiting for Security Is Wasting Our Youth

_{image created using DALLE}

A Chance Encounter with Despair

Yesterday, I met an old friend. Deep traces of despair hung over his face, dark shadows of sleeplessness sat under his eyes, and his overall state was completely disheveled.

I asked him, "How are you doing?"

Taking a long sigh, he replied, "Brother, I have been waiting on PPSC for three years now. I took three exams, even made it to the interview stage, but fortune just did not favor me."

Surprised, I asked him, "During this time, did you find work anywhere else or engage in any other activity?"

The light in his eyes faded like a dying lamp, and he asked, "What do you mean, brother? What kind of work?"

I said, "You know, a private job or a small business, things like that."

He turned up his nose in disgust and replied, "Brother, a private job is pure slavery, and doing business requires immense capital. Right now, I do not even have ten or twenty thousand rupees to my name."

A Shared Tragedy Among Our Youth

Dear readers, this is not an isolated incident. All around you and me, every second young person is trapped in a similar web, with the obsession for a government job standing right at the top.

Have you ever considered that this addiction to government employment has actually become a remarkably dangerous and hidden root cause of poverty in our society? How? Let us explore this in detail.

Look at the strange tragedy here: our youth first spend 16 years pursuing education to complete their graduation or post-graduation. Immediately after, they sacrifice the most precious years of their lives, from age 22 to 32, on the altar of various government competitive exams. They consider a private job paying 25,000 rupees a disgrace. They view opening a small tea stall as beneath their dignity. Yet, they do not hesitate for a second to ask their elderly parents or guardians for pocket money, remaining dependent on them well into their thirties.

Is this not a form of mental slavery, where we have begun to view government jobs as the ultimate symbol of honor and all other work with contempt?

The Social Stigma Around Honest Work

The tragedy in our society is such that if someone completes a Master's degree, an MBA, or another advanced qualification and joins a private company, people offer them formal condolences. Relatives and friends fire sharp arrows of sarcasm, mocking them by saying, "Ah, after studying so much, you ended up working as a peon."

Even if that person works hard for a few years and becomes a manager or department head, earning a monthly income higher than that of a civil officer, family elders and parents can still be heard saying, "Son, our heart's true desire was for you to secure a government job. There would have been respect, along with a pension and gratuity to support you in old age."

How do you even argue with that logic? In my view, there is no response to it, except that we must stop keeping our youth caged like this and instead allow them to work according to their true potential.

Five Hundred Thousand Applicants for a Few Thousand Seats

Dear readers, pause and reflect for a moment: on one side, our governments fail to create employment opportunities, and on the other, we have built an idol of government jobs in our minds that every young individual worships, wasting their potential in the process.

Do you know that over the past five years, the Punjab Public Service Commission alone received over 500,000 applications, while the number of available vacancies was merely a few thousand?

Has this not become a collective mental affliction among us?

I often think: if those same young individuals who waste ten years waiting for a government job were to spend just two years starting a small business or learning a tangible skill, would our country still be trapped in this quagmire of poverty?

If you read the history of developed or rapidly growing nations like Turkey, Malaysia, and China, you will see that they progressed because their youth prioritized entrepreneurship and industry over government employment. In contrast, in our society, business is seen as a terrifying path, one we fear ourselves and use to instill fear in future generations.

Open any newspaper today and you will see a flood of advertisements for teachers, clerks, and lower-level posts. Have you ever wondered why a resource-rich, healthy nation, possessing some of the finest minds in the world, is standing at the door begging just to become clerks? Where did this slave mindset come from? Is it an lingering remnant of our colonial history? Is it the byproduct of our flawed economic policies? Or is it punishment for our collective shortcomings?

It feels as though it was for a moment like this that Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the Poet of the East, wrote:

Have mercy, O King of Arabia and Non-Arabia,

For they stand waiting for charity,

Those beggars whom You blessed

With the grand mind of Alexander.

The Way Forward: Shifting Our Mindset

So, that is the problem. Now, what is the solution? There is only one solution: we must change our mindset.

We must convince our youth that dignity does not lie solely in a government badge; it lies in hard work and honesty. We need to promote small businesses, encourage vocational training, and foster practical skills. Above all, we must instill the belief that earning 25,000 rupees honestly carries far more honor than taking 100,000 rupees in bribes.

Remember, nations progress through hard work and innovation, not by sitting around waiting for competitive exams. I truly believe this obsession with government jobs has crippled the creative potential of our youth. It is time to shatter the chains of this mental slavery and recognize the severity of the crisis. Otherwise, God forbid, we will suffer the exact fate prophesied by Allama Iqbal:

If you do not comprehend, you shall be erased, O people of Hindustan!

Even your story will not remain among the stories of the world!