LAHORE, April 12: The Punjab law department has reportedly been asked to find a way for the direct recruitment of traffic police sub-inspectors for five big cities in the province after an official objection that this could not be done under the Police Order 2002.

Official sources informed Dawn on Wednesday that after finding no legal justification to directly recruit SIs for traffic police, the government maintained that they would be traffic wardens.

But again the officials concerned said no recruitment against the pay scale of SIs could be made even after changing title of the post.

They opined that if recruited without any legal justification, the traffic wardens should better be placed under the control of secretary transport instead of the Punjab police.

Following that, the officials said, the matter was referred to the law department for legal opinion.

A senior police officer said the government could suggest an amendment to the Police Order 2000 to resolve the matter.

The government had decided to recruit 6,000 BA constables for traffic police in five major cities — Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala — two months ago, and had invited applications for the purpose. But the authorities stopped the process last month when the chief minister reportedly asked them to recruit 6,000 sub-inspectors instead of constables.

The chief minister’s orders could not be implemented because of hurdles in the Police Order 2002 according to which, “recruitment in police other than ministerial and specialist cadres shall be made in the rank of constables, ASIs and ASPs”, having no mention of the direct appointment of sub-inspectors.

The constables were to be recruited by the police department, deputing the DIG traffic for the purpose. And officials said if backed by a legal provision, the traffic wardens would be employed through the Punjab Public Service Commission. They would perform the same duties as were designed for the constables.

The Shahbaz Sharif government had directly recruited hundreds of inspectors to change the “thana culture” by inducting fresh and educated men in the service.

But the policy was changed after the removal of Mr Sharif’s government in view of the blockade of promotion ladder by the direct recruitments of inspectors. And to guard against any such happening in future, it was clearly mentioned in the Police Order that only constables or ASIs would be appointed in police.