The management of Pak-Turk Schools on Wednesday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the interior ministry's orders directing school staffers to leave Pakistan by Nov 20.

The IHC accepted the petition for hearing and Justice Amir Farooq will start hearing the case on Nov 17.

In his petition, Alamgir Khan, chairman of the educational network, pleaded with the court to set aside the interior ministry's orders and grant permission to employees of the network to stay in Pakistan till completion of the ongoing educational session by March 2017.

Read more: Staff of Pak-Turk schools told to leave Pakistan by 20th

Earlier on Nov 14, the ministry ordered the Turkish staff of the educational network to leave Pakistan within a week. The extension in visa applications of these staffers have already been rejected.

Pak-Turk Schools staffers in their petition claimed that the applications submitted on June 22 for extension of visas of the staffers were rejected on Nov 11 without any explanation. They added they were ordered to leave the country within three days on Nov 14 by the interior ministry.

They pleaded that the educational session of 11, 000 students associated with 26 branches of Pak-Turk Schools would be affected badly if they complied to the orders. They added that the orders would also affect not only 108 staffers but also their around 400 family members, residing along with them in Pakistan.

The petitioners, Alamgir Khan and two other teachers of the school, made the federation of Pakistan via the interior ministry party in the petition.

The network of Pak-Turk schools and colleges was launched in 1995 under an international NGO registered with the Turkish government.

The chain’s 28 schools and colleges are functioning in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Jamshoro and Quetta. Some 11,000 students, of pre-school to ‘A’ Level ages, are studying there.

In August, Pakistan had promised Turkey’s visiting Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavusoglu that it would look into affairs of the chain Ankara wanted to be closed for its alleged links with US-based self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

During his visit, Mr Çavusoglu had said: "It is not a secret that Gulen’s organisation has institutions... in Pakistan and in many other countries. I am sure the necessary measures will be taken. We have to be very careful with such organisations and their causing risk and threat for the security and stability of every country [where] they have presence."

Turkish President Recip Tayyep Erdogan claims Fethullah Gulen was behind a botched coup attempt to remove him from office earlier this year and has repeatedly called on the US to extradite Gulen.

Gulen claims the allegations are 'slander' and has called for an international inquiry into the abortive coup, vowing his “full cooperation” with any such probe of the putsch over which Ankara is seeking his extradition.