SC admits plea seeking to proscribe Gulen’s network

Orders authorities to hand over control of Pak-Turk schools to Turkiye MAARIF

ISLAMABAD: Endorsing stance of the Turkish government, the Supreme Court has ‘accepted’ a constitutional petition seeking to declare Turkey’s self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen’s network as a ‘terror’ outfit and to hand over management of the Pak-Turk schools to the Turkiye MAARIF Foundation.

Turkey refers to Gulen’s network as Fethullah’s Terrorist Organisation (Feto) which is also a parent organisation of the Pak-Turk Education Foundation that runs a number of schools in Pakistan.

On Thursday, the Additional Attorney General Amir Rehman appeared before a three-judge SC bench headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar said the federal government is fully endorsing the Turkish government’s stance on the Gulen-backed schools.

“The Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) has also endorsed stance of the Turkish government,” he said. Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, observed that if an organisation is declared ‘terrorist’ by its parent state then it will be recognised as one in Pakistan as well.



The chief justice asked authorities to hand over the schools to Turkiye MAARIF Foundation.

However, Ijaz Ishaq, counsel for the respondent, strongly objected to the court’s proceedings. He wondered why the matter was taken up by the apex court when the Turkish government has raised objections to the organisation.

The CJP, however, announced that the petition is allowed but the order will not be dictated in the courtroom. The decision comes ahead of the top judge’s visit to Turkey on a special invitation extended by the president of Turkey’s Constitutional Court.

He will also attend annual spiritual night, Shab-e-Arus, organised in Konya to commemorate Maulana Roomi, on December 17 on an invitation of the Turkish ambassador to Pakistan.
The petition



Two weeks ago, a Sohail Sajid moved an application in the apex court seeking direction to refrain the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to register an organisation, which is presently running the Pak-Turk schools.

The petitioner asked the SC to direct the government to take over management of the Turkish schools and subsequently hand over it to the Turkiye MAARIF Foundation in the best interest of brotherly Muslim state. “The federal government having enough reasons at the local and international level may be directed to declare Feto a proscribed organisation,” the petitioner said.

He said the existing management of the Pak-Turk Education Foundation had applied to the SECP to change its name to ‘Golden Generation Education Foundation’ but the permission is not accorded yet.