KARACHI: The Sindh government on Monday lifted the ban on recruitment ‘only for the police’, allowing the provincial institution to hire some 7,000 constables on a proposal of the security administration, which argued for enhanced manpower of the law-enforcement agency amid growing security challenges and the ongoing ‘Karachi operation,’ officials and sources said.

They said Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah finally gave a nod to the proposal, issuing formal directives to the home and finance departments so the recruitment of policemen could be initiated. The process would take a few weeks to take off, they added.

“There are initially 7,000 openings for constables,” acting Sindh IG Iqbal Mahmood told Dawn. “Among them, 2,700 would be posted in Karachi and the rest would serve in different Sindh districts. The proposal was forwarded to the Sindh IG seeking his nod to relax the curbs so the people for the essential service could be hired.”

He was sure that the move would help the Sindh police in many ways as the growing security challenges and ‘consistent policing efforts in Karachi’ required a much larger force than the existing one. The recruitment would also help ease pressure on the overburdened strength, he added.

“Since recruitments of ASIs (assistant sub-inspector) include involvement of the Sindh Public Service Commission, we only proposed relaxing the ban for hiring constables, which has been finally approved. The fresh announcement would only be made for constables’ recruitment,” said acting IG Mahmood.

With threats ranging from militancy to targeted killings and street crimes to kidnapping for ransom, Karachi is battling organised criminal gangs for its more than 18 million inhabitants with just a little more than 29,000 policemen, a large number of whom are either protecting influential individuals and foreign missions, or are engaged in administration work within the department or serving on its specialised units.

The Sindh government has allocated Rs48 billion for law and order in its budget for 2013-14. While unveiling the Sindh budget 2013-2014 in June 2013, chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced recruitment of 20,000 policemen this fiscal year, who would be offered “high quality rigorous training” to turn them into a “strong and professional work force”. However, the promise took more than eight months to honour, and still not exactly the same way.

“There has been a ban on recruitments across the province in all public institutions since the government came into being after the May 11 elections,” said Waqar Mehdi, special assistant to the Sindh chief minister. “It’s relaxed only for the Sindh police considering the demand and requirement of the law-enforcement agency, which faces an acute shortage of manpower.”

The ban on recruitment in other provincial institutions would remain in place, he said, adding that the Pakistan People’s Party government would soon come up with comprehensive measures for relief of the people.

“Recruitment for the police is a slow process. A recruit takes almost a year to become part of the police force after passing through months of physical training and technical courses. It was badly needed and the decision would start yielding results for the force at least after six months,” said Mr Mehdi.