LAHORE, Dec 24: The Punjab government has approved changes in the recruitment process of assistant sub-inspectors of police which had been proposed by the Punjab IGP, it is learnt on Sunday.

However, official sources told Dawn that the government had raised objection to the procedure the IGP had adopted to forward the proposal, asking him not to directly approach the Punjab chief minister secretariat again. The government asked the IGP to move such proposals through home department, they added.

IGP Ziaul Hasan Khan had forwarded the proposal to the CM secretariat, mainly calling for withdrawal of 50 per cent recruitment of the ASIs from the Punjab Public Service Commission. The proposal citing the IGP’s power to make changes in the rules and regulations of the recruitment process under Police Order, 2002, had desired to fill the rest of the 50 per cent seats of the ASIs from police through departmental examination and promotions.

It had also been suggested that the age limit for the personnel to be inducted through the departmental examination and promotion would be 35 and not 25 as fixed by the PPSC.

The CM secretariat then forwarded the proposal to the Punjab government law department which reviewed it and approved the proposal with slight amendments. The department, however, strongly opposed the way the IGP had adopted to seek the changes to the induction process, sources added.

Sources said the law department’s objection asked the IGP that under the Police Order, 2002, he had the status of an ex-officio secretary which did not empower him to correspond directly with the CM secretariat. It asked the IGP to move any such summary again through the home department.

It is pertinent to mention that the objection seems to be a part of an ongoing tussle between the home department and the IGP office over power sharing. For some months, the home department has reportedly been making attempts to bring the Punjab police under its control by forwarding various proposals to Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.

One of the proposals had sought to conduct a social audit of the Punjab police department. It had suggested to set up some body comprising officials from civil society and the Punjab government to constitute methods to have an audit of Rs21 billion annual budget of the police, besides over Rs3 billion earmarked as part of the CM police reforms programme.

Another proposal of the home department, which it had sent to the CM in shape of a summary to enact an act, was to bring the Punjab police highway patrol posts under its control. Both the summaries have been in process of seeking comments from various quarters concerned, but nothing has so far been finalised.