Top court dismisses review appeal filed by PTICEF

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed a review appeal filed by Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation (PTICEF) against the court decision to declare it a banned organization, on Tuesday.

While heading a three-member bench, Justice Azmat Saeed Khosa remarked that the plea was inadmissible.

The bench said the Turk government had also declared PTICEF a banned organization. Justice Ejazul Hassan said other 40 countries had also banned the outfit.

The lawyer representing the firm said the organization was being funded by none other than Turkish people. He said these schools were not shut down in Malaysia. “You can also leave for Malaysia [if you want], remarked Justice Khosa.

He said other terror organizations could also open institutions in the country.

Justice Khosa stated that the administration was funding money laundering and terrorism in Pakistan. He referred to the lawyer that “you can not defend a terror outfit in the court.”

On Dec 31, 2018, the Supreme Court had released a 15-page verdict of the three-member bench written by Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and ruled that the entity a proscribed organization and ordered that the control of the schools run by the PTICEF, be handed over to Turkiye Maarif Foundation.

A lawyer Sohail Sajid had filed a constitutional petition in the apex court and requested it to declare the group a terrorist outfit in Pakistan.

The bench announcing its verdict in the case, ordered the interior ministry to add the name of PTICEF in the first schedule to Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Pak-Turk schools are administered by a foundation linked to Fethullah Gulen, who is being named by the Turkish leadership in the abortive coup attempt in July 2016.