PESHAWAR: The candidates for various police department posts on Friday held a demonstration against the recruitment on basis of quota and urged the provincial government to ensure appointments on the basis of merit.

Holding banners and placards, they called for the cancellation of appointments to those posts.

Candidates Mansoor Khan, Mohammad Sabir and Mohammad Ishaq said advertisements were placed in newspapers in Sept 2017 for the filling of driver and constable posts in the police department and thousands of people from across the province applied for them hoping for appointments on merit.

“We sat tests and fulfilled criteria but we were dropped and were advised to wait for the final list to be displayed on the basis on district level quota,” Mansoor said.

He claimed that the newspaper advertisement had no mention about quota for those appointments.

The protesters said they wanted appointments to be made on basis of merit instead of quota.

They said they had faced hardships due to the tests, especially during physical tests and qualified every requirement, but they were not considered.

The protesters said they would continue protesting until the government canceled all appointments and recruit employees on merit.

They also demanded of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership to step in for the early filling of vacancies on merit.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2018