GILGIT: A committee constituted to re-conduct test and interviews of the 734 teachers who were appointed in violation of merit has disqualifled 418 teachers.

An official told Dawn that around 1,000 teachers and other allied staff were appointed in the e ducation department since 2010, and of them 183 of them had already beensacked last year. He said that former director and deputy director of the education department had been sent on forced retirement last month for being instrumental in the illegal recruitments.

Sources said that 316 teachersqualified the test and interviews of the committee and their resto-ration notification was sent to the concerned district education officers.

Another official in the education department told Dawn that the committee had submitted its report to the region`s chief secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha on Monday.The official said 267 teachers could not fulfill the criteria, 103 teachers failed in the interview whereas 48 teachers didn`t appear before the interview panel at all.

The Gilgit-Baltistan chief secretary, taking notice of complaints andmedia reports last year, had constituted the inquiry committee to investigate the appointments made during the last four years.

On January 28, the committee had suspended more than 734 teachers and had fixed dates between February 28 to March 8 for undertaking test and interviews from the suspended teachers.-Correspondent