The Supreme Court on Tuesday discarded an application seeking a review of a 2018 order that had directed the interior ministry to declare the Pak-Turk International Cag Education Foundation (PTICEF) a proscribed organisation and ordered that the control of educational institutions, being run by the PTICEF, be handed to Turkiye Maarif Foundation.

On December 13, 2018, a local lawyer, Sohail Sajid, had filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court and requested it to declare the group a terrorist outfit in the country. The petitioner had also requested that the custody of Pak-Turk Schools be granted to Turkiye Maarif Foundation.

Announcing its verdict in the aforementioned case, the apex court had ordered the interior ministry to include the name of PTICEF in the first schedule to Section 11-B of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The apex court had also directed the country’s financial institutions to immediately freeze the bank accounts of PTICEF and give the custody of such assets to Turkiye Maarif Foundation.

Justice Ijazul Ehsan, who was part of the three-member bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed today, said that 40 other countries have also shut these schools down, and that the PTICEF has been declared a proscribed organisation.

During the hearing, the lawyer for the Pak-Turk school administration maintained that the Turkish government had no role in the establishment of the schools, it was the Turkish population that had generated the funds for the creation of the schools.

Editorial: Pak-Turk schools saga

In response to this argument, Justice Azmat Saeed pointed out that the Turkish government and supreme court had also declared the PTICEF to be a proscribed organisation.

The lawyer for the Pak-Turk schools then said that Malaysia had not shut these schools down, to which Justice Saeed replied: "Then you should go to Malaysia.

"Do you want to change [the school's] name and fool people again? This way other banned outfits will also start opening up various organisations. You cannot come to court and defend a proscribed outfit.

The lawyer then argued that the interior and foreign ministries of Pakistan had allowed this organisation to open up schools here.

Justice Ijazul Ehsan replied to this saying that these same departments of the government then came to court and said that Fethullah Gulen's organisations have turned into a terrorist outfit and that the organisation is being used for money laundering and funding terrorist outfits.

While dismissing the application, the judge said that the Government of Pakistan stands with the Turkish government.

The Pak-Turk schools were administered by a foundation linked to Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan. However, since the abortive coup attempt in July 2016, the Turkish leadership has blamed Gulen for sponsoring the overthrow attempt, resulting in a global crackdown on the religious and educational network led by him.

Ankara accuses Gulen of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.