Kashmir Needs a Merit Blueprint

A growing movement in Kashmir is calling for a system that rewards ability, not connections. But after years of nepotism, conflict, and broken institutions, can that dream come true?

- Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili

Some dreams start with a question. In Kashmir, one such dream is fast spreading among students, professionals, and young officials: What if merit alone decided who got promoted?

What if getting ahead didn’t depend on who you knew, but on how well you performed?

In a region where turmoil has frayed trust in institutions, the idea of a “sufarish-free” Kashmir—a system without backdoor deals, political influence, or family pressure—feels radical.

But it also feels necessary. If we want a just, functional, and prosperous society, we need to make merit the rule, not the exception.

The idea sounds simple. But the road to get there isn’t.

Kashmir isn’t alone in struggling with favouritism. Across the world, only about 4.36% of promotions go to the lowest-performing employees, but when that happens, the damage is deep.

When someone gets ahead because of connections rather than competence, it hurts morale. The entire team suffers. Good workers start wondering why they should try at all. And the institution becomes slower, weaker, less trusted.

We see this everywhere. In a school, an underqualified head can harm students for years. In a hospital, it can mean life-or-death mistakes. In government, it leads to bad service, growing anger, and deep public distrust.

Nowhere is this more dangerous than in a place like Kashmir, where faith in public systems is already fragile. If young people stop believing that hard work leads anywhere, they look for shortcuts, or they give up. That’s a crisis waiting to happen.