LAHORE – Despite the fact that it is unclear who has abducted the former director of Pak-Turk school and his family, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has barred the federal government from deporting them to their country till the next hearing.
Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza issued the order while hearing a petition filed by Orhan Uygun, a Turkish colleague of Mesut Kacmaz, who along with his family had been allegedly kidnapped from Wapda Town Lahore, through his counsel senior lawyer Asma Jahangir.
The counsel argued that the government had submitted an affidavit to the court last year stating that Turkish staff of the Pak-Turk Schools were allowed to stay in Pakistan till November 24, 2017.
Asma Jahangir further said that unidentified persons allegedly kidnapped Kacmaz, his wife and two daughters on Tuesday night and there was probability of deporting them.
She also informed the court that the police did not take any action over the application filed with the Satu Katla police station.
She pleaded the court to issue the directions for the Ministry of Interior to bar it from deporting the Turkish nationals.
After hearing the arguments, the judge sought a reply from a deputy attorney general regarding the kidnapped family by October 6 and also barred the authorities concerned from deporting them till next hearing.
Talking to media after the hearing, she said that the family has been allegedly abducted by the authorities.
Turkish Family’s Disappearance
Former director of Pak-Turk School, Mesut Kacmaz had reportedly been kidnapped along with his family in the wee hours of Wednesday from Lahore by unidentified men.
As per reports, Kacmaz and his family have been staying in Wapda Town, Lahore on a asylum seeker certificate of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for a year after the Pakistani authorities in November 2016 directed the Turkish staff of the schools to leave Pakistan on the request of Turkey.
The unidentified men also took away another Turkish peron Fatih Avci, who lives in an upstairs portion of the same building, with them on disruption but he was released later.
Avci in his statement said that he went downstair after hearing commotion and saw that some 15 unknown intruders in plain clothes were taking the family of Kacmaz from their home.
“I heard a commotion downstairs at our house located at 461, E2 Block, Wapda Town, Lahore. I rushed down and witnessed that the door to Mr. Mesut’s portion was open and there were about 15 plain clothed `police officers’ inside. Out of fifteen, five were ‘lady constables’. They did not conduct any search-and-seize procedure, nor did they turn the house upside down”.
However, the reasons behind the disappearance of the Kacmaz family are not clear so far.
