KARACHI: 2,235 cops hired hours before PA dissolution
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Nov 18: Hours before the dissolution of the provincial government, the appointment letters of 2,235 candidates aspiring to the post of police constables were issued on Sunday, senior officials in the police department and provincial government confirmed.
Although the recruitment process of the constables was initiated in August 2007 after twice being scrapped due to political considerations of the stakeholders in the Sindh government, the issuance of the appointment letters mere hours before the Sindh government is due to complete its term is bound to create controversy, observed a senior official of the Sindh government.
Previously, in Aug 2006, the final list of candidates was scrapped when provincial minister Irfanullah Marwat raised objections about the hiring process by reportedly approaching the prime minister over the issue.
‘Hiring done on merit’
However, police officials maintained that there was nothing irregular about the appointments. “The process was ongoing since the last many months following the placement of advertisements in newspapers for the jobs. The hiring has been done on merit,” DIG Training and Inspection Mir Zubair Mehmood said.
After the completion of the recruitment process, during which written tests and interviews were conducted in the respective police headquarters, the summery was sent to the chief minister, the DIG said, adding that at present appointment letters are being issued.
However, a senior police official requesting anonymity expressed his reservations over the issuance of appointment letters saying that job letters are being issued not against the sent summery but on the manipulated list of candidates.
For the purpose of conducting interviews of the candidates who had cleared the written examination, a special board was constituted comprising five police officials who conducted the interviews over a period from Aug 6 to 19.
The board, chaired by ADIG Welfare and Finance Syed Abbas Raza, comprised SP Headquarters Garden Rana Pervaiz, SP ACLU Niaz Ahmed Khosa, SP Headquarters Malir Abdul Jabbar and DSP Headquarters Khawaja Ajmer Nagri Toufiq Ahmed.The board conducted interviews of 466 candidates at Garden police headquarters, 356 candidates at Malir police headquarters, 511 candidates at Naval police headquarters, 505 candidates at Hasan Square headquarters and 397 candidates were examined at Khawaja Ajmer Nagri headquarters.
Each of the five members of the board awarded marks to each candidate separately.
Interestingly enough, the conspicuous presence of some unknown persons in civvies during the physical test facilitated relaxations for some candidates, sources said.
In the now defunct districts, respective SP’s used to carry out the recruitments for the post of constables in the police force. However, with the devolution of the government and enforcement of the Police Order 2002, the recruitment process was centralized and the job was assigned to the DIG training and inspection.
Once inducted into the police department, these personnel -- corrupt or clean -- would stay in the system till their retirement.
For the recruitment process, applications were invited for recruitment in the Sindh police against 3,370 vacancies for constables available across the province. Of the 1,475 vacancies for Karachi, 849 for male and 626 for female candidates exist. The department had received few applications from female candidates after which the separate seats for females and males had been merged.
A slice of the pie
Following reports about a conflict between the ruling partners over the share of their favourites in appointments to the police and various other departments, the Sindh High Court issued a notice to the government on a petition filed by former city nazim Niamatullah Khan, stating that the recruitment to the vacant posts in the provincial government departments was being made on political grounds.
He had prayed to the court to declare the recruitment process illegal and unlawful as it was being conducted by “trampling the spirit of merit.”
