LARKANA, Aug 26: Senior Sindh Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has suspended 11 education department officers including three grade-19 officials and ordered an inquiry against them for their alleged involvement in the issuance of fake appointment orders in connivance with some treasury officials.

Sources close to the minister told Dawn on Monday that the suspended officials also allegedly forged GP fund documents.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had undertaken a probe against the suspended suspects who, despite facing serious corruption charges, had been asked to continue with their routine jobs without the senior minister’s approval, according to the sources.

The minister told the media at his residence on Monday that he had ordered a probe into alleged corruption in the distribution of free textbooks under the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Scheme. He said the Sindh Textbook Board (STB) chairman and the regional directors of schools in Larkana, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas had been told to submit their reports in this regard within the next three days.

He said the STB management was supposed to distribute textbooks to students through the district education officers concerned till the month of April.

The minister appealed the parents of students to inform the official concerned at phone number 021-99222848 whether their children got the cost-free books or not.