Recruitment flaws: Report sought by July 18

Petitioner says he was not issued passing certificate despite training.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice (CJ) on Tuesday directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to submit record of all fake recruitments in the police department and initiate an action against those responsible.

Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry directed the IGP to submit a report in this regard by July 18.

The CJ was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Constable Raheel Shahid, who said that he had not been issued a passing certificate despite completing the one-year training at the Chuhng Police Training School.

The petitioner said that he had joined police on September 1, 2007 and completed training in November 2008. He said after the training he was denied a certificate for failing to meet the required chest and height measurements. He named the IGP and Chuhng Police Training School as respondents in the petition.

He said that he had filed a petition in the LHC after which the court on February 10, 2009, directed the school authorities to issue the certificate. He regretted that the court order was not respected.

Appearing before the court on Tuesday, the IGP said that he had constituted a board that would investigate the matter as well as all illegal recruitments in police.

Earlier, the CJ had directed the IGP to explain why the petitioner was dropped from the training course after completing the required training. The CJ observed that the court would not put its stamp on flawed police recruitment process and abandon the recruits to the mercy of the department.

Earlier, a report and para wise comments were submitted by the IGP stating that from 2004 to 2008, around 45,424 constables and driver constables had been recruited in various regions of the province. The Central Police Office noticed in 2008 that many newly-recruited constables and driver constables did not meet the required physical standards. On May 19, 2009, the then IGP, ordered re-measurement at training institutions, including the Chuhng Training School.

It was then discovered that around one-fourth of the recruited constables did not have the required measurements. Out of those, 494 belonged to the Chuhng Police Training School. After disciplinary action was initiated by the department, 84 petitions were filed in the LHC against it. The IGP admitted that there were problems in the recruitment process. However, he said the deficiency could not be overlooked and the deficient recruits could not be allowed to continue service. He, however, assured the court the matter would be investigated.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2011.