150,000 federal posts vacant

The government estimates that approximately 150,000 positions remain vacant in the centre and its autonomous bodies, following the recent elimination of an equal number of posts by the Shehbaz Sharif-led cabinet as part of an IMF-mandated rightsizing initiative.

Out of 1.2 million sanctioned posts, only 947610 are filled, leaving about 292009 vacancies. Recent position cuts eliminated nearly half of these vacancies, mainly in federal government departments, while autonomous bodies remained largely unaffected.

The federal government currently employs 590585 individuals, with 120223 vacancies in its departments. In contrast, autonomous bodies have 357,025 employees but 171,786 vacant posts. The number of vacancies has likely increased since FY23 due to a reduction in new recruitments.

Regionally, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has the highest proportion of federal jobs relative to its population, with 28% of federal jobs compared to its 17% share of the national population. In contrast, Punjab, which accounts for 53% of the population, holds only 46% of federal jobs. Sindh and Balochistan also have fewer federal jobs than their respective population shares.

The federal secretariat, which has 13503 positions, is primarily staffed by employees from Punjab (66.6%), followed by KP (14.2%), Sindh (11.5%), and Balochistan (2.8%). Among the total employees, 5.11% are women, with most of them holding positions in lower-grade scales (1-16).

The report shows that Punjab has the highest share of female employees at 66.8%, followed by Sindh (15.4%), KP (9.99%), and Balochistan (3.67%). Despite these figures, the male-to-female ratio remains heavily imbalanced at nearly 19:1. 

Federal divisions such as the Interior and Defence divisions employ the largest number of staff, with the Civil Armed Forces making up 42.83% of the total workforce.