Pak-Turk schools staff involved in terrorism, SHC told

Two-judge bench asks federal govt to submit policy regarding deportation by March 14

KARACHI: Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali on Wednesday revealed that PakTurk schools workers were found to be involved in terrorist activities in the country.

The disclosure was made in the Sindh High Court while Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali was presenting arguments before a two-member division bench headed by Justice Muneeb Akhtar.



Turkey had requested Pakistan to close down the Pak-Turk schools run by the US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen who had been accused of instigating a coup attempt last year.

The attorney general said that the counterterrorism department was taking action against the Turkish staff over their involvement in terrorism in the country.

Expressing sympathy with the Turkish teachers, he said they were being deported under the state’s policy.

Ali said the petitioners could still be allowed to stay in the country a little while longer. But once that deadline expires, he said, they would have to leave Pakistan.

The bench directed the attorney general to submit the federal government’s policy regarding deportation of Turkish nationals till March 14.

Till then the court extended its earlier stay order against the deportation of the Turkish teachers.

The deportation issue was taken up in the court in December last year by a group of parents, students and teachers of the Pak-Turk schools against the deportation of Turkish teaching staff following a request made by the Turkish government.

The interior ministry had in November last year ordered the Turkish staff of the educational network to leave Pakistan, rejecting their applications for extension in visas.



The petitioners’ lawyer, Abdul Hameed Khoso, said the Pak-Turk Foundation was a non-profit, non-government organisation which had nothing to do with the politics of Pakistan or Turkey.

The petitioners submitted that the deportation order would hurt the interests of 11,000 students studying in the schools.

He said the Turkish teachers had applied for an extension in their visas, but the government instead of granting the extension, ordered the staff to leave the country.

He maintained that the Pak-Turk Schools provide inexpensive but quality education.

“Therefore, the decision to deport the teachers will harm the future of students of the schools.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2017.