Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The future of thousands of students enrolled in PakTurk Schools & Colleges would be at risk if the government decides to close this educational network following the pressure of Turkish Government targeting it for having links with Fatehullah Gulen.

As many as eleven thousand students from pre-school to A-level were enrolled currently with these 28 schools and colleges working in various cities of Pakistan including Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Khairpur, Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Islamabad.

This network is alleged for being inspired by the Fatehullah Gulen the central accused for instigating a recent attempted coup in Turkey but on the other hand Pak-Turk Schools and Colleges network had rejected the claims, saying that the educational institutions were being operated transparently beyond any political and religious movements.

PakTurk International Schools & Colleges were the members of a chain of pioneer Turkish educational institutions established in 1995 and running under the auspices of the PakTurk Education Foundation for the pursuit of excellence in education in Pakistan.

The first Pak-Turk School under the foundation was established in Sector F-10 Islamabad on the request of the then Turkish Prime Minister in 1999. A senior official of the foundation said it had constructed 10 schools and also provided furniture for them in Azad Jammu Kashmir after the earthquake. These institutions were handed over to the government after completion.

The foundation was awarded Sitara e Esar by the Pakistani Government for its welfare services, he said, adding that as many as 30 per cent of students enrolled in Pak-Turk schools and colleges were belonging to poor families of rural areas.

The management was providing health, education and food facilities to these students without cost, he said.

The senior official said that Government of Pakistan should consult with the management of this educational network before taking any decision about their fate.

He said they were focusing on quality education and the syllabus for every class could be checked openly, which he said was beyond any political influential. He also denied the link of this network with Fatehullah Gulen. The government of Turkey had never paid a single penny to support this educational network, he said, adding that the pressure move on Pakistan by his country’s government to close these schools was a strange and meaningless act.

Referring to visit of the then Speaker National Assembly of Turkey in 2007 to Pakistan to attend the ground breaking ceremony of a boys campus of the same network in Chak Shehzad, he said PakTurk International Schools & Colleges had been appreciated previously by the government of same party in Turkey.

He said the current Vice Prime Minister of Turkey had also attended the inaugural ceremony of the above school and several other cabinet members of Turkey’s government also had been visiting these educational institutions in Pakistan.

The foundation, he said, had also been playing its role to enhance business cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey. He claimed that it was the Pak-Turk Education Foundation which suggested a Turkish Company to Pakistan Government to execute Rawalpindi Islamabad Metro Bus Service.

He said the foundation was working for last 21 years in education sector of Pakistan without support of any government with an objective to ensure quality education and to develop brotherly and cultural relationship between the people of Pakistan and Turkey.

He said no democracy, communism or any other government system in the world allows such steps to close educational institutions without any reason. They were observing the pressure on media, he said, adding that the Government of Pakistan had not yet contacted the administration for any proceedings against these schools.