LAHORE, March 12: The Punjab government has now decided to recruit 6,000 sub-inspectors instead of constables for the traffic police reportedly under directions from the chief minister, senior officials informed Dawn on Sunday.

The government had last month invited applications for the recruitment of 6,000 constables holding a BA degree as a first step towards transforming traffic police into a modern force capable of handling the ever-increasing load of traffic in big cities.

Applications for the posts were invited early last month but they could not be filled owing to alleged political intervention in the process. Many senior officials had demanded transfers rather than succumbing to the pressure of politicians to recruit people of their choice instead of making selections purely on merit.

According to the Police Order 2002, “recruitment in police other than ministerial and specialist cadres shall be made in the rank of constables, ASIs and ASPs”, having no mention of the direct appointment of sub-inspectors.

Official sources claimed that the government was ready to invite fresh applications for the posts of SIs, withdrawing the earlier decision to appoint constables.

They said they were unaware of the method which the government would adopt for the appointment of the SIs, admitting that the law did not provide any justification for their direct recruitment.

The officials said newspaper advertisements would soon be given for the applications and the SIs would be recruited probably through the public service commission.

The constables were to be recruited by the police department, deputing the DIG traffic for the purpose.

The SIs would perform the same duties as were designed for the constables and they would be posted in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala.

The Shahbaz government had directly recruited hundreds of inspectors to change the “thana culture” by inducting fresh and educated men in the service. But the policy was changed after the removal of the government in view of the blockade of the promotion ladder by the direct recruitments of inspectors. And to guard against any such happening in future, it was clearly mentioned in the Police Order that only constables or ASIs would be appointed in police.