KARACHI: The Sindh police have decided to hire a testing services firm for the recruitment of more than 4,000 traffic police constables in the first such move replacing the old testing system to ensure transparency and merit-based recruitment, an official said on Friday.

In a recently issued tender, the police sought expression of interest from testing services and consulting firms to organise a test for more than 26,000 applicants for the grade-5 posts of constables, he said.

“In the first phase, we have 4,250 traffic constable posts available across Sindh,” said the official. “For these posts, we have received 26,314 applications. The police have decided to conduct their test. Successful candidates will then be interviewed and complete other formalities for final selection.”

He said there were several organisations including National Testing Service (NTS), Pakistan Testing Service (PTS) and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) which offered such services. It was decided that any such firm would be hired through open tenders which also carried requirements in detail, he added.

“The testing firm will conduct physical tests of candidates including measurement of their chest, height and running speed at locations selected by the Sindh police committee,” he said.

“Similarly, it will conduct written test and also psychometric analysis of candidates. The tests will be conducted in phases and the results will be compiled and forwarded to the Sindh police. It will be done first time in the history of police that a recruit process is designed on these lines.”

Explaining reasons for taking the initiative, he said it was aimed at ensuring transparency in the recruitment process. The Sindh police had their own system of gauging the merit through different tools, including written and physical tests, but there was always strong possibility of political interference and nepotism in the recruitment through that system, he said. “So it’s the first such initiative as a test case and if it works, recruitment in the future would be held through the same methodology. The Sindh police will recruit 20,000 personnel during the financial year 2016-17 and the first intake will be 4,250.”

Last month, the Sindh government had announced that 50,000 jobs would be provided during this financial year. In this regard, it was declared that 20,000 personnel would be inducted in police, 10,000 in the education department and 3,500 in the health sector.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2016