LAHORE: The Punjab government has amended the Punjab Civil Servants Recruitment (Relaxation of Upper Age Limit) Rules 1976 to grant two-year relaxation in the upper age limit to all candidates looking to apply for jobs advertised by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) as well as all provincial government departments.

The age relaxation will be admissible for the recruitment of posts with effect from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2022.

Officials told Dawn that this decision would help thousands of aspirants apply for the government jobs advertised in newspapers and hundreds of them would get governments jobs.

The Punjab government has notified the amendment and added after rule 3, “Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules or anything contrary contained in any rules applicable to any post or service, two years general age relaxation, in addition to age relaxation admissible under these rules or any other rules, shall be admissible in respect of all the posts including those to be filled through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) and Combined Competitive Examinations”.

The amendment also adds: “Provided that this age relaxation shall not be available for the recruitment of posts in Police Force”.

The Punjab government has taken the decision to grant two-year age relaxation in upper age limit primarily on the summary forwarded by the PPSC chairman, wherein he had taken a stance that the candidates’ one year was wasted as the commission had not been able to hold the competitive examination due to coronavirus pandemic.

The commission had sought one-time one-year age relaxation and as the summary reached Chief Minister Mr Usman Buzdar suggested that the candidates should be given two-year age relaxation and that too for all PPSC examinations as well as recruitment by all provincial government departments through the competitive process. Eventually, the age-relaxation amendment has been made after fulfilling all due legal formalities. — MANSOOR MALIK

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2022