Pak-Turk schools case: Govt to submit reply in high court today

Turkey has requested closure of all institutions backed by Hizmet movement

ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to submit reply in Islamabad High Court over the Pak-Turk Schools case today.

The fate of the international schools’ chain plunged into uncertainty after the Turkish government requested the closure of all the institutes backed by the Turkish religious scholar Fethullah Gulen-inspired Hizmet movement.

Justice Aamer Farooq had given three weeks time to deputy attorney-general (DAG), Malik Faisal Rafique, to seek instructions from the interior ministry, foreign affairs ministry and others, after the Pak-Turk Education Foundation moved the IHC against the possible closure of its schools network by the government.

The counsel for the foundation, Hafiz Arafat Ahmed, had contended that the membership of the foundation comprises Turk and Pakistani nationals and neither Turkish nor Pakistani government has any role or share in it.

He said that the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges in Pakistan had no affiliation or connection with any political individual, movement or organisation, and had no financial relationship with any movement.

On last hearing at the Islamabad High Court, the Deputy Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Riffat Butt, and the Deputy Secretary Ministry of Interior, Azhar Amin, had appeared in person before the court and submitted that “there is no decision yet to change the management of petitioner company or taking over the same by Government of Pakistan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2016.