LHC orders to file case to recover missing Turkish family

LAHORE (Monitoring Desk): The Lahore High Court ordered on Tuesday the relevant authorities to file a case to recover the director of Rumi Forum and former principal of Pak-Turk Schools, Mesut Kacmaz, who along with his wife and two daughters, went missing from his residence in Wapda Town on September 27.

The court was hearing petitions, filed by Turkish citizen Orhan and others, challenging the deportation of teachers and staff of the Pak-Turk Schools. A petition had also been filed by the missing family.

No FIR has been filed in the case as yet and the whereabouts of the family are unknown.

The court in its written order directed the government to stop harassment against and provide protection to the staff and teachers. It ordered to put their names on Exit Control List (ECL) so as to stop their deportation.

The LHC also directed the interior ministry to ask intelligence agencies to submit a reply on whether the Turkish family is in their custody besides submitting a list of all missing persons.

The court on the request of the federal government’s lawyer Imran Aziz gave until October 16 — the date of the next hearing — to submit a detailed reply.

Aziz informed the court that the government has already written to the intelligence agencies in this regard and a reply would be submitted once it is received.

Saddar SP Rizwan Gondal informed the court that the police are still clueless about the family.

Sources said Kacmaz is currently on ‘UNHCR asylum-seeker certificate’ since November 2016 when Pakistan revoked visas of staffers working with the Pak-Turk Schools on the request of the Turkish government.

Turkey has blamed US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen for the failed coup in July 2016 and launched a crackdown on his supporters in the country and globally.

The ‘kidnapped’ director of Rumi Forum was also active against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Pakistan on social media, sources said. Since the attempted coup, Turkey has fired 21,000 teachers and arrested hundreds of academics.

In a chain of 28 Pak-Turk Schools and Colleges in Pakistan, around 11,000 students are studying.  The project was launched in 1995 by the Pak-Turk Foundation.