Over 20,000 overseas Pakistanis to be repatriated in 10 days: PM’s adviser

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Adviser to the premier Moeed Yusuf has clarified that the government has only allowed outbound international flights operations to resume.

He said that he saw some media reports that the government had allowed both inbound as well as outbound flight operations to resume, which he said were false.

"We analysed whether COVID-19 will spread if we let outbound flights come in. The answer is no, because their crews won't come here. We also realised that the Civil Aviation Authority was suffering financially. It needs air traffic to sustain itself," he said while explaining why the government took the decision.

Yusuf said that 2,000 Pakistanis will be repatriated daily from June 1 to 10. He said, however, that the focus would remain on the Gulf states because a lot of Pakistanis worked there as labourers and they could not afford to stay there even one day after being laid off.

"From June 1 to 10, about 8,000 Pakistanis from the UAE and 4,000 from Saudi Arabia will be repatriated. Our embassies and consulates there are facing a lot of pressure and the staff is trying their best,” he said adding that a new policy would soon be announced for overseas Pakistanis.

Meanwhile, the number of people who have recovered from the coronavirus in Pakistan has topped 25,000 after 1,140 additional recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the total number of people who have recovered from the virus has risen to 25,271.