PakTurk teachers ask govt to reconsider expulsion decision

With deportation staring them in the face, teachers, along with students and parents, of the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges continued their protest on Friday against the federal government’s decision to expel all Turk citizens associated with the educational group.

The students, parents and teaching staff of the Karachi-based PakTurk schools had organised a demonstration against the interior ministry outside the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, and they assembled at the same place on the second consecutive day to register their protest.

The protests have been triggered by government action amid a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said in his address to the joint session of the Pakistani parliament on Friday that religious cleric Fethullah Gulen’s US-based organisation could harm Pakistan if the group was allowed to carry out its activities. The PakTurk schools are being run by elements allegedly linked to Gulen.

After Friday’s protest, some teachers and parents shared their complaints at a press conference.

“Our schools were founded under the laws of Pakistan and are being run under the laws of Pakistan,” a protester said. 

The complainants said that despite the fact that their schools were not under the jurisdiction of the Turkish government, they were being harassed.

They further alleged that the schools were being exploited by the Turkish government’s discourse that had rendered the Turkish teachers political targets. “While the only purpose of these schools is education, it is beyond our understanding why the PakTurk schools and Turkish teachers are being used as an object of politics by the two governments.”

They mentioned that the educational institutions were founded without any financial assistance being received from either Turkey or Pakistan. The schools were founded by philanthropic donations of people of both countries and were properties of the Pakistani people.

“These schools are running without the financial support of either government. Despite that, both governments play politics on these institutions as if they are their own property. The resulting speculations about the fate of the Turkish teachers and their families hurt us as parents and schoolchildren immensely,” said an angry parent.

The protesters pointed out that the educational system had been operational for the last 21 years, and during those years, they had not heard any negative remark or news about the teachers.

They said the teaching staff also provided assistance after the 2005 earthquake and floods in the recent past. While they had the liberty of leaving Pakistan during difficult times, the Turk teachers had always preferred to stay with the local teachers affiliated with the PakTurk schooling system, they added.

The educational system has 11,000 students in 26 branches across the country, but action taken against them has no example in any other country in the world, said a teacher, adding that “there are 1,100 Pakistani and 110 Turkish teachers”.

The protesters said that it was hard to understand why their own leaders were inflicting harm to students. “This is an irreparable damage to education and sets a very negative example for all.”

According to a protester, the ultimate aim of “this foul action is to penetrate into our educational system and control the management of our schools through their likeminded political activists and ideologists”.

“The history will judge us by the actions we have taken and the consequences of any hurried and unfeeling decisions will surely affect our future. After the changes in governments in both countries, the friendly and brotherly ties among peoples of Pakistan and Turkey will be irreversibly damaged.”

The students and parents appealed to the civil society to help stop the forcible expulsion of the Turks. They also asked the government not to interfere in the affairs of the educational group or politicise or try to control it.