Nuaman Ishfaq Mughal,
Islamabad: As many as 772 Pakistani nationals, stranded due to the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries, have been successfully repatriated over the past few days. This was informed by Spokesperson Foreign Office Aisha Farooqi while responding to a question during weekly press briefing here in Islamabad on Thursday.
Spokesperson Foreign Office said that in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad had established a robust and round the clock out-reach initiative to provide Pakistani overseas communities with relief and assistance wherever required.
She added that following the establishment of the Prime Minister’s “COVID-19 PANDEMIC RELIEF FUND-2020”, Pakistani missions abroad had been instructed to share the information widely with Pakistani diaspora communities as well as reach out to donors, philanthropists and suppliers in their areas of jurisdiction.
As a result of comprehensive and phased plan for repatriation of Pakistani nationals in different countries, 101 nationals returned from UAE, 40 from Doha, 170 from Bangkok, 194 from Istanbul, 128 from Tashkent, 3 from Tajikstan, and 136 from Baghdad through special flights operated by Pakistan International Airline.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that government accorded top priority to phase-wise repatriation of Pakistani citizens stranded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He stated this while chairing a high-level meeting at the Foreign Office which reviewed various aspects of the repatriation of Pakistani citizens awaiting repatriation across the world.
