By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari have visited the Islamabad International Airport (IIAP). They reviewed the measures taken to manage the extra load of flights due to international flight operations limited to Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, as per the national strategy devised to effectively tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) threat.
The Minister and SAPM were briefed about the preventive steps taken by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) after reports of the Coronavirus cases in Pakistan.
Ghulam Sarwar inspected the arrangements in that regard and talked to the health staff deputed there for screening of inbound passengers from international and domestic flights. He also checked whether the passengers from international flights had filled health declaration forms or not, besides inspecting the Education Desk and the Isolation Rooms set up at the IIAP. He reiterated the Aviation Division’s commitment to ensure provision of better facilities to passengers at airports across the country. As per the updates from Saudi Arabia, all international flight operations were scheduled to stop at 1100 hours (KSA Standard Time) on Sunday. The flight operations would remain suspended for two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of OP&HRD, said on directives of SAPM Zulfi Bukhari it provided meal to the passengers, who spent hours at the airport to take flights for Saudi Arabia so that they could be able to report at their respective workplaces within the deadline given by the Kingdom.
