PM stresses upon new initiatives to attract top talent

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that the need to focus on attracting and retaining top talent was as urgent and important as focusing on investments in the country.

“Businesses want to invest in places where the talent is; where the politics and policies are stable, and where the system works”, he said while chairing an important meeting on ways to create a more capable workforce that is able to deliver the government’s policy programme effectively, and also is founded on the principles of impartiality and recruitment on merit, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release The prime minister appointed a committee under the chairmanship of finance minister to seek and firm up propositions in the policy to enhance and clarify the work pass framework currently in vogue in ministries to better support Pakistan’s need for talent with the directions to submit its findings at the earliest.

Minister for Finance and Revenue Federal Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Dr.Musadiq Malik, Ahad Cheema, Attaullah Tarar , Sardar Awais Leghari, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Muhammad Jehanzeb , Minister of State Shaza Fatima and high-level officials attended the meeting. “Pakistan must build a world-class talent pool because this is an age where talent makes all the difference to a nation’s success,” he observed.

The meeting noted a dearth of technical input at policy making levels and emphasized its need, which is imperative if the civil service is to develop new skills, improve its management of big projects and adapt to the demands of a digital age. The participants of the meeting highlighted barriers to appointing people from outside such as long timescales, processes that prevented a proper search for the best candidates and pay inflexibility that made it all difficult to attract the best talent, particularly in areas of skills shortages.