ISLAMABAD: As the situation is going from bad to worse in Afghanistan, two planes of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) which had been stuck at Kabul airport with 499 passengers onboard - majority of them Afghan nationals - landed at Islamabad International Airport on Sunday.

One was a Boeing 777 which had 329 passengers, while the other was an Airbus 320 with 170 passengers.

According to PIA, three flights will be operated between Islamabad and Kabul tomorrow as well, as there is a large volume of Pakistanis and other nationals looking to leave Kabul.

Earlier, the sources said that the planes were not being allowed the use of the runway to take off as the US military evacuated American diplomats.

Earlier in the day, Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan Mansoor Ahmed Khan had tweeted that the embassy is engaged with PIA to accommodate Pakistanis on regular and additional flights.

"We are also assisting those who have issue of affordability. Contact the Embassy," he added.

Talking to reporters in Multan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Pakistan embassy in Kabul is open and would remain functioning in the coming days too, adding Pakistan would facilitate anyone who is stranded there as Taliban troops entered the city on Sunday noon.

Talking to Business Recorder over the phone, some of the Pakistani nationals stuck in Kabul said that Pakistan Embassy in Kabul had asked them to rush to the Kabul airport Sunday morning, but except six of them, none of them managed to get a seat in the two PIA flights.

They said that they could not go out of the airport as the situation is quite tense outside, and are stranded at the Kabul airport. Some of the Pakistani national, they added, have taken refuge inside Pakistan embassy.

They said that majority of the passengers who were evacuated were foreign national including Afghanis.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said that a special cell had been set up at Pakistan press section in Kabul to facilitate evacuation of the international media personnel from Kabul.

In a tweet, he said the press section had received hundreds of visa applications from the international media personnel for facilitating their eviction from Afghanistan.

An official at Pakistan Embassy in Kabul who wished not be named told Business Recorder on telephone that the embassy is making all out efforts to evacuate all the stranded people out of Kabul.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021