Sindh Police constables appointed on merit this time

KARACHI: First the time in the history of Sindh province, police constables have been appointed purely on merit through credible testing services and physical test by the Pakistan Army.

Previously, the posts of constables were always filled by the ruling party and the allies. In many cases, criminals, over-aged and physically unfit persons got appointed on political basis creating many troubles for the law enforcers.

Talking to The News, IGP Sindh Allah Dino Khawaja rejected the perception of any political pressure for these appointments but sources in the ruling party of Sindh told this reporter that the party leaders were of the view that like the past practice the posts should be filled through the party leaders and office-bearers amid the upcoming general election 2018 but the new Sindh police bosses took a principled stand and rejected all kind of pressure.

In June 2016 after the appointment of A D Khawaja as IGP a high level body in the police department — Sindh Police Management Board comprising IGP Sindh as chairman and all other AIGs as members was constituted for taking major decisions.

Following the decision of that board a criteria was settled for the appointment of constable. According to the new criteria a candidate had to clear the physical test of the Pakistan Army, pass written test of any independent reputed testing services like the National Testing Service (NTS) of Institute of Business Administration (IBA) etc, medical test from any reputed medical institution like Aga Khan Hospital etc and finally he will have to clear the psychological test of the NTS.        

According to the official figure, there were 22,367 posts vacant in all ranges, zones and units of Sindh police.

All vacancies were advertised and around 1,25,000 candidates applied; after completing all procedures only 5,185 were declared successful and recruited in Sukkur, Larkana, Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah), Mirpurkhas ranges and traffic and telecommunication section while recruitments in Karachi, Hyderabad, Counter Terrorism Department, Special Security Unit and Rapid Response Force are underway. Assistant IG Naeem Sheikh informed that within week all procedure will be completed.

AIG Sheikh said that Sindh Police working on four major issues, general recruitment of constables, recruitment of Ex-Army personnel in Special Police Unit, creation of I.T. cadre and promotions within the department on merit basis.

Inspector General of Police Sindh A D Khuwaja told The News that Police constables are the backbone of the force and it was a big challenge to made a merit based recruitment process and with the help of his team he succeeded in this regard. 

“We have many plans to improve the condition of Sindh Police and boost the morale of force and has got full support of political leadership in this regard”, further added Mr. Khuwaja.

Apart from the official figure and claims of IG Khuwaja and AIG Sheikh this reporter contacted some successful candidates of different ranges to get their view point regarding this procedure.

Recruited Police constable Hamid Ali s/o late Allah Dino Otho of Sehwan Sharif district Jamshoro told The News that he selected purely on merit and he do not have any approach to any influential political person.

Asif Mirani of Sukkur range told The News that he selected without any source and as per rules, Hubdar Mari of Shaheed Benazirabad, Pertamdas and Lekgraj of Mirpurkhas division also told the same story.