LAHORE: Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court Tuesday stayed expulsion of Turkish teachers from Pakistan. The court also sought reply from the Interior Ministry until January 17, 2017, on a petition challenging the ministry’s directive for extradition of Turkish teachers. Advocate Naveed Suhail Malik had moved the petition before the LHC challenging the Interior Ministry’s orders to expel Turkish teachers from Pakistan. The petitioner had submitted that the PakTurk Educational Foundation was running 28 schools in Pakistan, where more than 11,000 students were receiving education, which employed 130 Turkish teachers and more than 1,000 Pakistanis. He said that sudden expulsion order came when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was visiting the country and appears to be an appeasement of his demands that schools linked to Fethullah Gulen – an exiled Turkish cleric and major political rival of Erdogan – be closed. He said that the Turkish teachers were serving in Pakistan for decades and their stay was not in violation of any law of the land. He said that the “impugned order” was without any justification and it would put the future of some than 1000 students at jeopardy. He said Pakistan had nothing to do with the politics of other country and had to protect the future of its generations. He requested the court to declare the order of Interior Ministry null and void. Separately, LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah Tuesday sought arguments on maintainability of a petition challenging the recent elevation of 14 additional LHC judges. An advocate had moved the petition. Petitioner’s counsel AK Dogar alleged that these appointments were made in violation of article 8 of the constitution and should be declared null and void. He said that a petitioner had already filed a petition requesting the court to make appointments of judges in accordance with the law, but the judges were elevated before a decision on the petition. He requested the court to declare appointments null and void. These elevated include Justice Mujahid Mustaqim Ahmad, Justice Tariq Iftikhar Ahmad, Justice Abdul Sattar, Justice Habibullah Amir, Justice Muhammad Bashir Paracha, Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, Justice Jawwad Hassan, Justice Ahmad Raza Gillani, Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir, Justice Mudassir Khalid Abbasi, Justice Abdul Rehman Aurangzeb, Justice Muhammad Ali and Justice Ch Abdul Aziz.