HARIPUR, Dec 19: The provincial government has directed the district education department to stop recruiting teaching staff, official sources told Dawn on Friday.

In line with the earlier directives from the provincial education department, the district government had announced recruitment of over 350 teachers of different cadres last month.

The sources said that 2,013 candidates had appeared in the written test and interviews for the posts.

About 350 contenders were declared successful and 66 men and 33 women were issued appointment letters against the posts of CT, whereas 20 drawing and four physical education teachers (PETs) were also appointed.

The appointments for other cadres, including Arabic, Islamic Studies, Qari and 25 PETs were under process when the provincial government banned further recruitment through a letter issued by the minister for education.

The minister had directed the EDO education to immediately stop the process as further recruitment would be made later.

Meanwhile, the candidates and teachers association objected to the whole process. They accused certain officials of favouritism.

It was also learnt that some candidates had also moved the court of law challenging the recruitment process of the education department.

Despite several attempts to contact the concerned officials, it could not be clarified whether the ban on further recruitment was a result of financial constraints currently faced by the provincial government or the alleged lack of transparency in the process.