DADU, Nov 29: The Election Commission (EC), acting on complaints about large-scale recruitment of teachers in Dadu, has directed the education department to cancel all the appointment orders issued since the announcement of elections schedule, sources close to the matter said on Thursday.

The EDO of education had received a letter from the commission asking him to put a stop to the recruitment process but he had not issued cancellation orders so far, the sources added.

The commission took action after it received complaints from PPP candidates Rafiq Ahmed Jamali and Pir Mazharul Haqand, PPP leaders Qazi Shafiq Ahmed Mahessar, Haider Bux Jatoi and scores of affected candidates who had passed written test and interviews for the teacher’s jobs but were not issued any letters.

They had written to the commission that the EDO of education was issuing appointment orders to a select set of people who were believed to support a particular political party in elections and no appointment letter was issued to the candidates who had passed written and oral tests.

Executive District Officer of education (elementary) Ghulam Asghar Leghari who was on the interview committee tasked with selecting teachers said that the EDO had issued the letters to about 2,100 to 2,200 teachers without even consulting his fellow officers, a step mandatory under office procedure.

He said that only 472 posts were vacant in the district while the Dadu Civil Hospital had received 600 letters seeking fitness certificate. According to procedure, a candidate has to submit a fitness certificate besides a number of other documents to the education department after he gets appointment orders.

Civil Surgeon Dr Syed Ghous Ali Shah wrote to the EDO asking him to send him a list of genuine candidates after he was deluged with hundreds of requests for fitness certificates.

But the EDO did not respond to his letter, sources at the hospital said, adding that the civil surgeon went on leave for three days after sending the letter. The EDO was not available for comments. But the in-charge of education office, Qamaruddin, showed a list of vacant posts, which he said had been sent to the provincial government. The list showed 353 vacant posts of PST, 116 of JST and 11 of HST.

An affected candidate Manzoor Ahmed Memon who had obtained first position in the written and oral tests for teachers’ jobs alleged that the department made recruitments either for huge bribes or on political basis. The price for a seat ranged between Rs70,000 to Rs100,000, he said, adding, that he failed to get the job despite achieving first position because he had had no money to offer them.

Many candidates sold off their cattle and gold ornaments to arrange for money to buy the job still a majority received fake orders and the process of issuance of orders was still going on, he said.

The regional director of Ombudsman in Dadu, Saeed Ahmed Mubejo, said that he had started his own investigations into the illegal appointments in the education department.

PPP candidate for NA-232, Rafique Ahmed Jamali, confirmed the commission had ordered the department to stop appointments and cancel the orders issued thus far and termed it a stark violation of the commission’s orders if the appointments continued despite orders.