KHAIRPUR: Several hundred students of the school run by the Pak-Turk Foundation in Khairpur held a protest demonstration along with their parents here on Saturday against the abrupt closure of their institution.

The protesters carrying banners and placards raised slogans demanding withdrawal of the orders for its closure.

Later, speaking at a press conference, Prof Ghulam Mustafa Mashoori, senior educationist Ghulam Rasool Buriro, Dr Bushra Ramejo and others recalled that the institution had been established in 2001 with great efforts made by PPP MNA Nafisa Shah who also contributed a lot to the betterment of education in Khairpur. They said that more than 700 students were currently enrolled in the school and its closure had endangered their future.

HYDERABAD: The Pak Turk School Hyderabad principal Mr Najeebullah and vice principal Misbah Qureshi told a press conference on Saturday that the institution had no connection with the Turkish government or Fethullah Gulen, who was stated to be behind the recent coup attempt in that country.

They said that their educational institutions had been working under the Pak Turk Education Foundation with the assistance of local philanthropists.

Eight such schools were currently functioning in Sindh -- five of them in Karachi and one each in Hyderabad, Jamshoro and Khairpur, they said, adding that there were 27 schools across the country which were providing education under the aegis of the foundation.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2016