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Thursday March 28, 2024

Turkish nationals granted temporary injunction against deportation

By Jamal Khurshid
October 04, 2017

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday restrained the federal and provincial governments as well as the law enforcing agencies from taking any adverse action against Turkish nationals without the court’s permission.

The order protects all staff members of the Pak-Turk schools and colleges, as well as family members of the petitioners. The interim order came on a petition of Turkish nationals who moved the court seeking protection of life and a court injunction against their illegal deportation from Pakistan.

The petitioners – Ali Yilmaz, Fatma Yilmaz, Recep Lacin, Ummuhan Lacin, Abdulgani Gulmez, Emine Songul Gulmez, Yasin Ulucinar, Tuba Ulucinar, Abdulkerim Oguz and Seyide Nihal Oguz, Ubeyd Bayraktar, Gunes Sarisin – who have been living and working in Pakistan since 2011 submitted that the SHC had previously suspended the then interior minster’s order regarding deporting officials of the Pak-Turk schools.

The petitioners maintained that on September 27 their colleague, Mesut Kacmaz, his wife, Meral Kacmaz, and their two daughters, Huda Nur Kacmaz and Fatima Huma Kacmaz, were picked by armed personnel from their home in Wapda Town, Lahore, and shifted to an undisclosed location.

Another Turkish national and the family’s neighbour, Fatih Avci, was also picked up by the personnel after he tried to stop the men from taking the family; he was later released.

They observed in their petition that it is a well known fact that the Turkish government wanted every country to deport Turkish nationals following 2016’s failed coup. Some of those deported were imprisoned, tortured and even killed by the Turkish government, the petitioners maintained. Besides, they said, there were several reports issued by the United Nations over atrocities committed by the Turkish government.

The petitioners told the SHC that they were being followed by unknown men for the past few days, whereas another one of their colleagues in Khairpur survived a kidnapping attempt after people present in the vicinity intervened.

The petitioners expressed apprehensions over forced deportation without the due process of law being followed. Citing the ministry of interior, FIA and Sindh police as respondents, they requested the SHC to direct the ministry to place their names on the Exit Control List to avert illegal deportation. The petitioners also requested for being provided security.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar after a preliminary hearing of the petition directed the additional attorney general to file comments on behalf of the federal government.

The court also directed FIA, IG Sindh and others to file their respective comments on October 10 and in the meantime ordered that no action, adverse to petitioners or any other family members of the petitioner shall be taken without the permission of the court. It is pertinent to mention that the SHC had already reserved its order on the petition of parents and students of Pak-Turk schools against deportation of the schools’ Turkish staff.