KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday suspended the federal government’s order to deport Pak-Turk schools staffers.

A division bench headed by Justice Muneeb Akhtar also suspended the interior ministry orders refusing requests to extend visas of the Turkish staff.

The bench issued a notice to the interior secretary and deputy attorney general to respond to the petition by Dec 13.

As many as 34 petitioners, including parents of children studying in a Pak-Turk school and its staffers, moved the SHC through a constitutional petition requesting it to declare the interior ministry’s orders as illegal and unconstitutional.

They further asked the court to restrain the authorities from deporting the Turkish employees of the Pak-Turk Foundation and their families and order extension of their visas.

The petitioners stated that the government’s decision of not extending the visas at this juncture in an abrupt manner was bound to have devastating consequences for the over 11,000 students studying in the 26 schools across the country.

They submitted in the petition the students were in the middle of their education session which would complete in March 2017 and added that the government’s decision was likely to affect their education.

The petitioners said the right of education under Article 25-A of the country’s Constitution did not place merely an obligation on the state to provide education but also ensured that the education provided was of the highest possible standard and quality.

They said the exceptional standard of quality education provided at the schools largely depended on the hard-working Turkish teachers, who helped the students achieve excellence.

The interior ministry had on Nov 14 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.

Turkey’s visiting Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had in August requested Pakistan to close down the Pak-Turk Schools for their alleged links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Pakistan had promised that it would look into the issue.

The network of the Pak-Turk Schools and Colleges was launched in 1995 under an international non-governmental organisation registered with the Turkish government. The chain has schools in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Jamshoro and Quetta. Some 11,000 students, of pre-school to ‘A’ Level ages, are studying there.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2016