Sindh government has ordered the dismissal of more than 10,000 School Education Department employees after officially declaring them ghost workers who drew salaries without reporting for duty.
The crackdown begins with Hyderabad division, identified as the worst offender, where over 200 employees have been formally listed as proclaimed ghosts and are set to lose their jobs. Officials say the affected staff failed to respond to show cause notices or justify prolonged absences when confronted with evidence against them.
Investigations by the department uncovered ghost employees across all six divisions of the province, including Karachi, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad, alongside Hyderabad.
The categories of staff involved span naib qasids, chowkidars, gardeners, lab attendants, primary school teachers and junior elementary school teachers, pointing to irregularities spread across multiple tiers of the education workforce.
Officials familiar with the verification exercise said the scale of the problem became apparent once show cause notices were issued and a large share of listed employees either could not be traced or offered no explanation for their absence. This has strengthened the case for terminating them under the ghost employee classification.
The department has confirmed that formal dismissals will be carried out in August, once the verification process across all divisions is complete. The exercise is expected to trim the payroll of the education sector and remove salaries currently being paid to staff who have not been performing their duties.
