QUETTA: The education department of Balochistan government has launched an inquiry to verify the appointment orders and educational certificates of more than 50,000 teachers across the province.

Provincial Secretary Education Saboor Kakar said that education officers of 32 districts have been directed to launch probe into educational certificates and appointment orders of the teachers.

Earlier, an anti-corruption court sentenced three government officers to seven years in prison over recruitment of fake teachers in Balochistan's education department.

The department has launched the verification process in the aftermath of repeated reports about presence of hundreds of fake and ghost teachers in Balochistan.

The scrutiny and verification process of teachers' appointments and educational certificates would take two months to complete. "We will not spare any fake teacher", said Kakar.

Deputy commissioners and treasury officers are also taking part in the verification process besides district education officers.

In past, a large number of people got appointment orders illegally with the support of education and treasury officers.

"Fake transfers without any appointment order were made from one district to another by some elements," the Secretary Education lamented.

The incumbent government claims to have given priority to education sector with allocation of Rs40 billion for salaries of teachers and its development.

However, most of the budget goes into the salaries of teachers and other education staff members. Very less amount remains for the development of education sector.

The government has already terminated more than 600 teachers across the province for being fake and stopped their salaries.

Moreover, National Accountablity Bureau (NAB) has also launched an inquiry into the appointments and educational certificates of teachers in the province.

Also read: NAB launches inquiry against 600 'fake' teachers in Balochistan

In August, Balochistan government had terminated services of over 400 government school teachers in the province who had been absent from the duty for a long time while NAB had started investigation against some senior officials of the education department who were allegedly involved in the appointment of such teachers.

A NAB official who requested anonymity told that the number of fake and ghost teachers was in thousands not in hundreds.