A Pakistani family in Montreal is appealing to politicians in a last-ditch effort to stay together after a judge refused to grant a stay of a deportation order for the parents while giving one to their four children.

Sabir Mohammed Sheikh and his wife Seema were accepted to Canada as refugees in 2001, but they failed to tell immigration officials that after leaving Pakistan, they spent 20 years in Dubai, raising a family.

The couple were whisked away from their Montreal home to a detention centre on Friday, a day after the federal court decision.

Their lawyer, Stewart Istvanffy, said he's out of legal options and only political will can keep them from having to leave their five-year-old Canadian-born daughter in the hands of her older siblings.

In the meantime, Istvanffy called for a judicial review of the deportation order, which was issued because the couple wasn't honest about the amount of time they spent in Dubai after leaving Pakistan.

Sheikh argued he never had any status in Dubai, and that he faces persecution in Karachi both for political reasons and at the hands of his daughter's estranged ex-husband.

Istvanffy said Sheikh has built a good life for his family and become a well-regarded member of his community over the last 10 years, and that he should be allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds.

"Basically we're facing a deportation machine that's running out of control in Canada. This man is a community leader, he's very well-known in the Pakistani community, he's got letters of support from all sorts of people, and it doesn't seem to count for anything with the authorities," Istvanffy said.

With files from CBC News