Daily Times

A special Saudi Arabian Airlines flight on Wednesday brought back 254 Pakistani Umrah pilgrims from Jeddah to Lahore.

A second flight carrying the rest of 474 Pakistani pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia will leave from Jeddah for Multan today.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released nearly 400 prisoners, jailed for minor offences, following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. “In the backdrop of the prevailing situation following the outbreak of COVID-19, the UAE government has released nearly 400 Pakistani prisoners in line with the understanding reached between the governments of Pakistan and the UAE. These prisoners were serving their term in the UAE jails for minor offences,” said a press release issued by the Embassy of Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

The prisoners are being repatriated to Pakistan through two special flights arranged by the UAE government. “Two FlyDubai flights are bringing these prisoners to Faisalabad International Airport and Bacha Khan International Airport Peshawar,” the press release added.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), since April 3, has successfully managed to bring home over 1800 countrymen and women stuck in different parts of the world due to COVID-19, said a spokesman of the national flag carrier here on Wednesday. Mentioning that 11 different relief flights were flown to Central Asia, Far East, Middle East and Canada, he said these also included destinations where PIA does not have a regular flight operation and that special flight permission had to be sought in minimum possible time for the convenience of Pakistani passengers. Under this operation, relief as well as chartered flights are being operated to and from Pakistan with some additional flights also scheduled from April 15 to April 19.

Sharing details of the next phase of the relief operation, he said a flight left Islamabad for Toronto on Wednesday, followed by two more from Islamabad to Manchester on April 17 and 18 consecutively, with PK 8894 and PK 8852 leaving for Seoul (South Korea) from Islamabad on April 17 with two more flights planned from Karachi to Jakarta (Indonesia) on April 18 and Karachi to Toronto (Canada) April 19.

According to the PIA spokesman passengers already flown back to home include those from Canada, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Japan, Thailand Malaysia and Turkey. Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Security Moeed Yusuf said that domestic flight operations in the country will remain suspended till further orders amid COVID-19 pandemic. He said a website is being planned to provide proper information to overseas Pakistanis wanting to return home. He said the government has given two options to every passenger returning from abroad: quarantine at local hotels on their own expenses or free of cost isolation at government-run health facilities. “Several passengers have refused to quarantine at hotels,” he said, adding that everyone has to follow the policy.

He further announced that 41 Pakistani stranded in India will return home on Thursday (today) morning.

Later, Moeed Yusuf met with Special Assistant to PM on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari in the presence of UAE First Secretary Juma Al Kaabi. It was decided during the meeting to operate a special flight from the UAE on April 18 to bring back Pakistanis. Bukhari said that another flight schedule will be issued after April 18. “We are giving priority to bring back Pakistanis who have lost their jobs,” he said, adding the overseas Pakistanis could register their complaints with the ministry regarding any difficulty faced abroad.