The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday reserved its verdict over maintainability of a petition seeking directives for the government to make arrangements to evacuate Pakistani students from Wuhan, the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah reserved the verdict after hearing the petitioner's arguments. Petitioner Mian Muhammad Faisal moved the petition and made the secretaries of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the National Health as respondents. He submitted in the petition that the coronavirus outbreak has so far killed over 200 people in China, triggering panic the world over as many countries are evacuating their nationals from China's high-risk areas.

He added that there are thousands of students from Pakistan studying in China and of them around 500 students are in Wuhan. The petitioner said many countries have issued a travel advisory and are taking precautionary measures to block the spread of the deadly disease.

Faisal requested the court to direct the government to explain what arrangements are in place to tackle such a deadly virus in Pakistan and especially in the federal capital.

He further demanded that the government should place before the court precise information regarding the Pakistani citizens in China and how many have been affected by this virus till date and what measures so far have been taken to evacuate them as well as other people from the high-risk areas.

The Chief Justice asked how the fundamental rights were violated by the situation. The petitioner responded that according to Article 199 of the Constitution, high court has jurisdiction in situations of public interest.

The petitioner's counsel, Jahangir Khan Jadoon, contended that the government's statistics are inaccurate. The bench, however, noted that the court could not admit the request for an inquiry and reserved its judgment over maintainability of the petition.