ISLAMABAD: In an apparent effort to please the visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, around 108 teachers of Turkish origin and their family members have been asked by the Pakistani authorities to leave the country by November 20. With many of them serving in Pak-Turk schools and colleges for years, visas of most these Turkish teachers and their family members had expired around September 9 this year. They were not renewed due to pressure from Turkish authorities who falsely link the education institutions, teachers and staff with the global Hizmet movement and its chief, religious cleric Fatehullah Gulen.
The hypocrisy is that Pakistani authorities, especially PML-N’s top circles, continued to assure the high ups at the Pak-Turk Foundation that they should wait patiently till their visas were renewed in due course. But it was not to be, and now they face such an inconvenient and alarming situation. All this happens a day prior to a state visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 16-17. “You are requested to direct all foreign nationals whose visa extension has been regretted by this ministry, to leave the country before November 20, 2016, positively,” a letter from Interior
Ministry dated November 14 tells Chief Executive Officer of Pak-Turk International Education Foundation.
“This ministry has already issued an exit permit, without overstay charges, in favour of these foreigners (copy of exit permit enclosed),” says the letter. Officials in the Interior and Foreign Ministry said on anonymity that Pakistani authorities rushed to take the step, being dubbed as a violation of human rights, just to please the Turkish President and his aides who have over the past few months had demanded strongly to send the Turks packing.
“We are perplexed. How can we pack up in three days and leave after serving this country for months and years. We should be treated fairly, with dignity and respect and be given ample time to dispose off our assets – cars, rented houses, furniture and fixtures,” said a Turkish teacher on anonymity. Hundreds of his colleagues, many of them living in Pakistan with their families, fear prosecution at the hands of Turkish authorities once they land in Turkey. Already, 100,000 people from different walks of life – including teachers, police, civil service and judiciary – have been subjected to the purge by the Erdogan government in Turkey since the failed coup in July. Amidst condemnation and fears expressed by the western world, especially human rights organisations, hundreds are behind bars and being treated inhumanely by the authorities in Turkey under the pretext of emergency rule.
Pakistani authorities have, through this action against these apolitical Turkish teachers and their families, blatantly ignored fears that these Turkish teachers and their family members could be arrested as soon as they land at any Turkish airport as the government there terms them part and parcel of the Hizmet movement of United States based cleric Fatehullah Gulen whom President Erdogan’s government accuses for masterminding the failed July military coup. Gulen has since then strongly denied such charges.
At the moment, Turkish teachers form the backbone of the 23-24 Pak-Turk schools and colleges spread all over Pakistan, imparting education to over 10,000 students.
