KARACHI: As the Sindh government, in a major shift in its police recruitment policy, has kept `merit as the only condition` for hiring police constables without any segregation of job quota for male and female candidates, over 15,000 men and women have applied for 2,500 positions in the law-enforcement agency, said a senior official.

Karachi police had recently invited applications for the 2,500 openings in the law-enforcement agency approved by the authorities concerned.

Eligibility criteria set for theposition included candidate`s domicile of Karachi and at least matriculation from any education board in the province, said DIG administration Ghulam Sarwar Jamali while speaking to Dawn.

A key feature in the recruitment process of Sindh and Karachi police is encouragement to women to become part of the LEA, but this time the authorities did not set aside any certain number of jobs to offer them in the police department.

`The process is open for both male and female candidates,` said DIG Jamali. `There is no quota or number of positions allocated on the basis of gender. Women are free to apply and if they meet thecriteria and qualify, they can be hired even in higher number than men.

But history suggests that women have not show keenness to join the police force, with the result that fewer number of applications were received from women than men, the officer said. Besides, he added, most of the women showing interest in police force by applying for the posts could not meet the criteria set for recruitment.

The DIG said: `This time we have received 15,500 applications from candidates interested in 2,500 openings in the city police basic pay scale grade of 5.

`We had invited applications from both men and women and setMarch 2 as the last date for submission of the applications.

Finally, a total of 15,500 applications have been received.

While unveiling the provincial budget for 2016-17, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had announced that the government would provide 50,000 jobs during the year. Of these jobs, 20,000 openings would be offered in police, followed by 10,000 in education department and 3,500 in the health sector, he promised.

However, the Karachi police had failed to recruit the desired number of candidates since the beginning ofthe Knancialyear.

The authorities explained that lack of merit was a major reasonfor police`s failure to recruit the desired number of candidates as they claimed to have made the process more transparent.

`To ensure transparency and merit-based recruitment, the Sindh police has introduced testing system for the applicants, said another official. `The National Testing Service (NTS) was hired after due process to replace the decades-old test system. Now the NTS people conduct the entire testing exercise and evaluate candidate keeping the police officials concerned on board. Obviously that transparency and strictness has made the selection a little tough but it would be good in the long run.