JHANG, Sept 3: The provincial ombudsman, Rashed Khan, has ordered the recruitment of a candidate as constable in the Jhang police patrol at least two years after he had successfully passed his selection test.

The ombudsman has also directed the provincial police officer to hold an inquiry into causes of delay in the appointment and take appropriate action against the officials responsible for it.

He has taken the action on a petition submitted by Shabbar Abbas of Jhang.

He complained that he applied for the selection as constable in the patrol police some two years ago.

He said that he had passed all his tests and was placed 13th in the merit list. But he was declared unfit in the medical test.

The complainant said that he along with two other candidates, Yasir Masood and Muhammad Ishfaq, made an appeal to the Faisalabad DIG for the re-examination by a medical board.

On Nov 3, 2004, he said that all three of us appeared before the board and were declared medically fit.

Later, the two others were recruited, but he was not asked to join the training center for the reason best known to Jhang police high-ups.

This led the complainant to file a petition with the ombudsman office to get justice. In his comments, the Jhang DPO informed the ombudsman that the petitioner had passed all except the medical test, which he had subsequently passed along with two other candidates.

The DPO said the petitioner’s case had already been forwarded to the recruitment committee through the Faisalabad DIG for consideration.

The petitioner’s council deposed that since the district police officer himself was the recruiting authority, he could himself recruit the petitioner without the recruiting committee approval which had already recommended the petitioner for recruitment.

The ombudsman observed that by not issuing the belt number to the petitioner after he had passed all his tests and declared medially fit by the medical board, the Jhang district police officer acted in a discriminatory manner with the petitioner which amounted to maladministration.