The Senate's Standing Committee for Interior, chaired by the
PPP's Rehman Malik, on Thursday summoned Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi's representative to brief the committee over the deportation of
Turkish teachers last year.
The committee also directed
the federal interior ministry to submit details of Turkish teachers that
are in Pakistan as well as those who were deported last year. It also
sought the legal documents of the non-governmental organisation (NGO)
which has taken over the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges
functioning in the country.
The orders were issued after
rights activist Asma Jahangir, who attended the committee's meeting,
accused the government of deporting Turkish teachers by force. Jahangir
said that the former president of Pak-Turk International Schools and
Colleges, Mesut Kacmaz. had been kidnapped along with his wife and
children in Pakistan and then arrested when his family was deported to
Turkey.
Jahangir, a senior lawyer, is representing Kacmaz in a contempt of court case against the Pakistani government being heard by the Lahore High Court (LHC). The petitioner has accused the government of disregarding the high court's order to halt the deportation of Turkish teachers.
Jahangir
also told the Senate committee that the government had handed over
charge of the Pak-Turk schools to another Turkish NGO, while the old
Turkish employees of Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges are
either being expelled from the country or have gone missing.
Following
a failed military coup in the country in July last year, the Turkish
government had sought the closure of Pak-Turk International Schools and
Colleges in Pakistan.
The educational institutions were
accused of being associated with Fethullah Gulen, the arch rival of
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the man alleged to be behind
the Turkish military's failed takeover.
As many as 32
Pak-Turk schools and colleges had been running in Pakistan under Turkish
management at the time. As many as 115 Turk nationals were employed at
different positions in these educational institutions, and more than
11,000 Pakistani students were studying in the school chain.
After
the Turkish government demanded their closure, a Pakistani NGO had
taken over the affairs of the schools and colleges and made the old
staff redundant.
