#SHAME #PAKISTAN - ''Must Please Erdogan''

In the attempt to please Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistan has gone a little too far this time.

The family of the former principal of the Pak-Turk Schools Mesut Kacmez, whose abduction report came out, last week, have apparently been deported back to Turkey. This is despite the fact that they were living under an asylum seeker certificate issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). What this means is that deporting them back to Turkey, where their life can be in danger, is against a dozen national, international and even moral laws.

Last week it was portrayed as if they had gone missing, and the government was meekly asking the security agencies to locate the family immediately. Now we know all those statements to be deceptions – as only the government could have handed over the family to Turkish officials.

The news of their deportation would not have come out if the daughters of Kacmez had not been in touch with the daughter of the former director of Pak-Turk Orhan Agyun. Turkish officers apparently flew out to Pakistan to discreetly take the family back. The girls at the moment are living with their grandparents but there is no update about the parents. And according to the girls, the officers tortured them on the plane.

Pakistani government, aware of the laws at play and the threat to the lives of these people, easily handed them over.

Their case was in court and the court had ordered the government to put the family’s name in the Exit Control List (ECL) to prevent their movement unless the matter was solved.

The federal government again surpassed orders of the court and took action of their own accord.

They need to be held accountable for this matter.

In a democratic state, as we claim ourselves to be, this cannot happen.

We have pledged to protect the right of individuals and our policies need to reflect that. The incident only points in one direction and that is that the government staged the abduction of the family just to please Erdogan and help him deport the family back.

It is not only illegal but a poor policy choice as well. We claim to be the champions of the Kashmir cause and highlight state terrorism that is prevalent in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), but this act of ours is no less than that.

They have deceived the populace that voted them into power.

This is an insult to the promise of democracy. Whoever is involved in the process, the government needs to answer. It cannot hide behind false claims of innocence.

It is a shame that we need to reiterate the flawed policy being pursued to please Erdogan’s anti-Gulen paranoia.