Tears and sadness as Turkish people pack up to leave Pakistan

Shaking hand with her friends and teachers on the last day on campus Batool, 10, broke into tears which made everyone around depressed. 

“I do not want to go to Turkey. My parents also don’t. Why they are sending us back when we don’t want to,” she said.

The faculty, the local students and their parents were also downhearted because of the Pakistani government’s ‘sudden and unexpected decision’ to expel over 100  Turkish teachers and their family members (350) on the ‘request’ of the Turkish government. 

Since the Pak-Turk schools and colleges has alleged links with the US based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for July’s coup attempt, the Pakistani government ordered 450 Turkish teachers and their family members to leave the country by November 20. 

The Turkish teachers moved the Islamabad High Court against decision but found no respite as it asked them to approach the interior ministry and disposed of their petition. Batool was born here when her parents who are teaching at the Pak-Turk School in Lahore. She was fluent in Urdu which she has learned in the company of her Pakistani class-fellows.