My blog post yesterday drew attention to the fact that Anwar’s boys are being educated in Pakistan.

It now turns out they are there with their mother following a terrible family bereavement. Who wouldn’t have sympathy with the Anwar family in these circumstances?

If I had been aware of this I would have never raised the matter. Never.

Yesterday, I asked him where his children went to school. This was not a snatched 60 second conversation in a school corridor. We were having a long and detailed conversation about education policy and community cohesion seated around a table in the Head’s office at Marsden Heights Community College.

Mike Tull, the Head, was there and so was Andrew Stephenson, the Conservative candidate. And the BBC reporter was recording everything that was said.

If Anwar had said that his children were all educated in Britain but his sons were temporarily in Pakistan following a family bereavement then that would have been the end of it.

But it wasn’t like that. Anwar was defending parental choice, explaining at length that if people wanted to have their children educated in Pakistan then that was a matter for them.

Here is Anwar’s press release, written by Tony Greaves.

RESPONSE TO PRENTICE EDUCATING ANWAR PRESS RELEASE

12.53.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th Apr 2010

RESPONSE:

Afzal Anwar said he was not going to drag his children into the political debate.

His agent, Tony Greaves, on behalf of Pendle Liberal Democrats, said:

This is a despicable attempt by Gordon Prentice to make political capital out of a shocking family tragedy.

Last year Afzal's sister died suddenly in childbirth in Pakistan. This was a huge trauma for the family and Afzal's wife decided to go to Pakistan for an extended visit to help sort things out and look after the new infant.

She took with her their young children, who are naturally going to an English-speaking school in Pakistan while they are there.

The family expects to be reunited within a few weeks when Afzal's wife and children return to Nelson in June. The children will resume their education in local schools in Pendle. Prior to going to Pakistan the children attended Macmillan Nursery and Marsden School.