Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry on Monday summoned the inspector general of police (IGP) on June 7, directing him to explain personally, as to why discrimination is being shown to some police recruits, who passed out the training course at the Choong Police Training School, Lahore. The LHC CJ was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Constable-recruit Raheel Shahid of Narowal, who despite completing training, was not issued a passing certificate on pretext of deficiency in chest and height measurements. The IGP and Choong Police Training School were made respondents in the petition.
The petitioner said that he joined police on September 1, 2007 and completed training in November 2008 from the Choong School but was not given a passing certificate. Raheel said that he filed a petition in the LHC on which the court on February 10, 2009, directed authorities at the school to issue the certificate but the court order was not honoured and he was still running from pillar to post for justice.
The LHC CJ directed the IGP to explain why the petitioner was dropped from the training course after completing training. The LHC CJ observed, “Court cannot put its stamp on faulty police recruitments’ process and leave recruits at mercy of the department.”
Earlier, a report and para wise comments from the IGP were submitted on Monday stating that from 2004 to 2008, around 45,424 constables and driver constables were recruited in different phases in various regions of Punjab. The report said that in 2008, the Central Police Office noticed that many newly-recruited constables and driver constables enrolled in various districts did not meet the mentioned physical standards. On May 19, 2009, the then IGP ordered re-measurement in training institutions, including the Choong Training School, Lahore. The report said that after re-measurement, around one-fourth of the recruited constables were found to be deficient in chest and height measurements, which was held under supervision of district police officers (DPO), city police officers (CPO) and capital city police officers (CCPO).
At the Choong Police School, 494 constables were found deficient in physical standard for chest and height and not declared passed-out despite the fact that they underwent training. When disciplinary action was initiated by the department, around 84 petitions were filed in the LHC against the action. The LHC restrained police from taking action against the recruits but the process for disciplinary action under PEEDA Act 2006 is still continuing against such recruits. In the reply, the IGP admitted that there were some problems at the recruitment level, which resulted in faulty measurement of chest and height of the recruits but that could not be overlooked at a later stage and the deficient recruits could not be allowed using that pretext for continuing service.