Sindh HC scraps order to deport Turkish staffers of Pak-Turk schools

The Sindh High Court has suspended the federal government's order to deport Turkish staffers of Pak-Turk schools.

The court also suspended the Interior Ministry's orders refusing requests to extend visas of the Turkish staff, reports the Dawn.

Respondents including the Deputy Attorney General and the Interior Ministry have been asked to submit a reply regarding the issue by December 13.

The High Court gave the directive over petitions filed by two Pak-Turk schools' teachers and parents of the students studying there.

The litigants pleaded against the government's decision to close the school chain and deport its foreign staffers and said that the decision to expel staffers was against the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families as well as bad for the students studying at the Pak-Turk Schools.

On November 14, the Interior Ministry ordered the Turkish staff of the educational network to leave Pakistan within a week. The extension in visa applications of these staffers was also rejected.

Earlier in August, Islamabad had promised visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu that it would look into the affairs of the chain of Pak-Turk schools and colleges that Ankara wanted to be closed for its alleged links with US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it holds responsible for the recent military coup.

The network of the Pak-Turk Schools and Colleges was launched in 1995 under an NGO registered with the Turkish Government. The chain has 28 schools now in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Jamshoro and Quetta. Some 11,000 students, of pre-school to 'A' Level ages, are studying there.

In the second week of August, the management of the chain removed the Turkish principals of their 28 schools and colleges and also dissolved the board of directors.