ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a number of Pakistanis have been stranded across the globe including in the United States and Canada; therefore, the Foreign Office is putting in its efforts to repatriate those fellow countrymen.
When asked from the Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui about the repatriations of stranded Pakistanis as it remains their foremost concern now when the entire world has been caught up in the whirlwind of COVID-19, she said that it’s among their top priorities to bring them back home at the earliest.
Commenting on the repatriation plans for Pakistanis in the US and Canada, Aisha Farooqui told the Dispatch News Desk (DND) news agency that we are working on sending a special flight to Toronto.
While for the US, we are talking to the Qatar airways to share with us a schedule to bring our nationals back from the United States, she added.
Earlier on Thursday at her media briefing, Aisha Farooqui told that a total of 5,079 Pakistani nationals have been repatriated as part of the third phase of the repatriation plan being conducted from April 20 to 28.
The Spokesperson said that 81 Pakistani nationals including 31 Tableeghi Jamaat members have been repatriated from South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.
The Foreign Office Spokesperson said that 1,453 nationals including 100 prisoners were repatriated through six flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on April 20, and nine stranded Pakistani nationals were brought home safely from Maldives on April 22.
In addition to that, she added that in the last few days, a total of 1,254 nationals returned to the Country through the land borders including 41 stranded Pakistanis from India through the Wagah border and over 1,200 Pakistanis including 195 truck drivers from Afghanistan through the Pak-Afghan border.
