Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation has started restructuring of its workforce to ensure merit and bring transparency in the organization in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In the past, appointments in the organization were made without adopting proper procedure, violating merit and without observing provincial quota. This unabated recruitment based on nepotism, has resulted in accumulation of huge workforce in the organization which PBC has no financial cushion to support.

Nepotism is reflected from the fact that out of 749 contractual staff members, 225 are blood relations of PBC employees. This number does not include other relations. 

Similarly, the provincial quota has been severely violated as 375 persons are engaged from Rawalpindi/Islamabad, 140 from Punjab,  93 from Sindh, 64 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , 37 from Balochistan  and 40  persons have been engaged from Northern Areas/ Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

PBC is facing a budget deficit of Rs. 942.887 million during the current fiscal year 2020-21.

The annual emoluments of the contractual staff to the tune of Rs.181.752 million are being paid from the Program, News and Current Affairs production expenses and only a meager amount remains to manage the payment of actual program expenses i.e. casual artists' fees.

PBC has no separate budget to pay the salaries of the contractual staff of Radio Pakistan. As a result they move to courts and other forums and the cases are piling up, with PBC having no way for redressal of these cases demanding clearance of dues. 

Keeping in view PBC's financial constraints, the management reviewed the existing human resource and decided that, under the current circumstances, it is not possible for the organization to continue to utilize the services of contractual staff under the present terms and conditions.

This step has been taken for the betterment and strengthening of the national broadcaster.