'Government plans to bring back around 12,000 stranded Pakistanis'

12 May, 2020

While addressing a press conference, he told that about 20,000 stranded Pakistanis have been brought back home, while 110,000 other Pakistanis are still in foreign countries wanting to come back.

The special assistant said the coronavirus tests of the Pakistanis returning from abroad will be carried out on an immediate basis.

The special assistant said that policy regarding the coronavirus had been changed after consulting all the provinces.

"All the provincial authorities have been directed to try to announce the results of coronavirus tests in 24 hours. Those who test negative will be sent home, while people with positive tests will be quarantined either at government facilities or at their homes," he said.

Total number of passengers planned from 11th-21st May is approximately 11,000, with stranded passengers being repatriated from at least 22 countries.

Countries from which majority flights are incoming are as following: the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, USA, and Oman.

These policies have been implemented in coordination with the provincial authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis - looking at the complete data for inbound passengers, and we hope that it will allow us to return stranded Pakistanis back home without worsening the health situation in the country.

"We have been able to repatriate around 23,000 Pakistanis so far, with a total of about 100,000 Pakistanis still registered as stranded across the globe."

This current strategy will allow us to raise our weekly cap for inbound passengers from 7,000-8,000 to 11,000-12,000 under the current policy. The government plans to operationalize Sialkot and Quetta airports as well in the days to come, he further said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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