All panellists for reforming BCS job quota system

All four panellists at the BBC Bangladesh Sanglap including Food Minister Abdur Razzak yesterday spoke for reforming the existing quota system in the public service recruitment.
BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, one of the panellists, said if voted to power, his party would reform the quota system.
Two other panellists were Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman and Ubinig Executive Director Farida Akhter. The dialogue was held in the capital's Bangla Academy auditorium.
Their opinions came amid an ongoing protest by jobseekers and different public university students for the cancellation of the quota provision in the public service recruitment.
Currently, 56 percent of the posts under the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) cadres are reserved as quotas. Of them, 30 percent of the posts go to freedom fighters' children and grandchildren, 10 percent to women, and five percent to indigenous people, 10 percent to people of some districts, and one percent to the physically challenged persons.
Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission (PSC) yesterday decided not to apply the quota system in the preliminary test of the 34th BCS examination. It will publish the reviewed results today.
When a participant asked whether the time has come for reforming the quota system in all sorts of public service recruitments including BCS, Razzak said, "There is a scope to review the entire quota system, and the government has already given a signal regarding this.”
Iftekharuzzaman said the existing number of quotas should be reduced. When moderator Akbar Hossain said the BNP did not reform the quota system during its previous tenure, Mosharraf said, “There was no protest against the quota system at that time.”
Referring to the recent TI report revealing that the political parties are the most corrupt institution, a participant asked whether the report was released with a purpose.
Razzak said his party had protested the report, while Mosharraf said the timing of the report had raised a question about it, as TI, for the first time, had brought political parties under its survey.
Criticising the report, Farida Akhter said the time of the release of the report had raised suspicion.
Ruling out all the allegations, Iftekharuzzaman said it was not true that for the first time TI had brought political parties under its survey. “Timing could be a coincidence,” he added.
Replying to another question, all the panellists said security measures in the country's garment sector should be beefed up for the interest of the country.