Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed a petition against the expulsion of Pak-Turk staffers by Nov 20, saying that the petitioners should approach the interior ministry in this regard. Justice Amir Farooq asked if the visa of any foreigner expires while in a country do they go to the interior ministry for a visa extension or knock the doors of the court.
Pak-Turk Chairman Alamgir Khan and two other staff members had approached the Supreme Court regarding the matter of the expulsion of staffers from the country and not receiving an explanation about the refusal to extend their visas.
Visa officer Muhammad Hafeez represented the interior ministry before the court, to which the court raised objections, asking why a joint secretary of the interior ministry was not present for the hearing.
The public prosecutor replied that the joint secretary was in a meeting. The judge asked if there was only one joint secretary present in the interior ministry.
He also raised questions about the timing of the meeting the joint secretary was attending. "Who holds meetings at 2:30pm? Did the prosecutor not inform the interior ministry about the court hearing?"
The judge summoned the joint secretary to court, upon which Deputy Secretary Naila Zafar and Joint Secretary Salman Qayyum presented themselves before the court.
The officers of the interior ministry informed the court that no record of any visa extension requests from Pak-Turk staffers from June 22 or August. The visas of the Pak-Turk school staff expired on Sept 9.
In his petition, Alamgir Khan, chairman of the educational network, pleaded with the court to set aside the interior ministry's orders and grant permission to employees of the network to stay in Pakistan till completion of the ongoing educational session by March 2017.
Earlier on Nov 14, the ministry ordered the Turkish staff of the educational network to leave Pakistan within a week. The extension in visa applications of these staffers have already been rejected.
Pak-Turk Schools staffers in their petition claimed that the applications submitted on June 22 for extension of visas of the staffers were rejected on Nov 11 without any explanation. They added they were ordered to leave the country within three days on Nov 14 by the interior ministry.
They pleaded that the educational session of 11, 000 students associated with 26 branches of Pak-Turk Schools would be affected badly if they complied to the orders. They added that the orders would also affect not only 108 staffers but also their around 400 family members, residing along with them in Pakistan.
The network of Pak-Turk schools and colleges was launched in 1995 under an international NGO registered with the Turkish government.
The chain’s 28 schools and colleges are functioning in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Jamshoro and Quetta. Some 11,000 students, of pre-school to ‘A’ Level ages, are studying there.
