KARACHI: Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) refuting claims of the District Assembly of Tharparkar through a resolution has claimed that SECMC has provided significant number of jobs to the locals. SECMC spokesperson, Mohsin Babbar claimed that some of the local politicians by making deliberate attempts have been compelling the company to recruit non-meritorious candidates into employment. “We will continue to keep following our merit policy firmly and we will not accept any pressure at cost of hiring meritorious Thari youth,” spokesperson added. Providing statistics, he added, “Out of 3,462 employees hired in management and non-management cadre in last 21 months for projects related to Thar Coal Block II, 71 percent belong to district of Tharparkar, 23 percent belong to other districts of Sindh and 6 percent belong to other provinces of Pakistan. He said that all appointments, confirmations and promotions in the management and non-management cadre were being made purely on meritorious grounds and hiring was strictly based on performance. He pointed out that non-availability of trained human resource was not considered a barrier and special training programmes worth millions of rupees were introduced to capacitate and recruit locals. He said that no project in Pakistan’s private sector maintains such a high ratio of employees hired in management and non-management cadre from local area by Sindh Engro projects in Thar. Published in Daily Times, January 21st 2018.