PIA to bring back around 6,000 stranded Pakistanis from today

Pakistan has suspended its flight operations till April 30th, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stated on Saturday. Earlier, Pakistan had suspended domestic and international flight operations in the country in a bid to contain the coronavirus till April 21.

However, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security and Strategic Planning Dr Moeed Yusuf stated on Saturday said that government was allowing few commercial flights to operate from next week to bring back stranded Pakistanis by buying tickets in routine matter.

He said that there were still various countries, where the PIA flights were not allowed like USA and Australia.

He said not only rich Pakistani families but also stranded Pakistani there whose visas were expired.

He said that next week the PIA flights will bring back those Pakistanis whose visas were expires or students who did not have place to live from Malaysia and Australia.

On Saturday, CAA stated in a notification, "As per the decision of the Government of Pakistan, the suspension of international and domestic flight operations as effected earlier has been extended up to Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 2359 hours PST."

In an earlier notification, the CAA had said that diplomatic, special/cargo flights and flights of national carrier to/from Pakistan holding special approval from the competent authority for transporting stranded passengers" would be exceptions to the ban.

Most countries around the world have suspended international travel ever since the pandemic started spreading at a feverish pace in Europe, America and Asia last month.

On April 14, 2020, the government opened six airports for international arrivals and around 2,000 stranded Pakistanis will be returning till 18th April (Saturday).

Yusuf said that from today (Sunday), PIA flights will fly back around 6,000 stranded Pakistanis after enhancing testing and quarantine capacity at airports and cities.

He said that the government increased the testing capacity and quarantine centre three times and has target to add up to 1,500 more stranded passengers back to Pakistan from April 26.

The new directives come as the number of confirmed cases in the country rose to over 7,500 with 143 deaths.