By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: In a step to bring home the Pakistanis stranded at Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, the federal government has allowed to operate a special flight from the United Arab Emirates to Islamabad, media reported.
According to the details, 150 stranded Pakistanis will arrive homeland tonight via a special flight of an airline flydubai.
A spokesperson of Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority said that the special flight will land at Islamabad International Airport at 12:10 am monday night.
Earlier on March 21, amid increasing threat of novel coronavirus, the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) had suspended its international flight operations.
The international flight operation will remain suspended from March 22 till March 28. However, domestic flights will continue as per schedule. The flight operation across the globe had been suspended as a precautionary measure to control over the outbreak of the coronavirus, as a number of other countries had been also suspended their flight operations due to the risk.
Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Monday has given one-time permission to Qatar Airlines to bring back Pakistanis stranded in Doha due to the coronavirus outbreak.
According to details, the flight will land at Islamabad airport at 8:00pm tonight.
It is to be mentioned here that the coronavirus cases in Pakistan have surged to 799 as 352 patients have been tested positive for the epidemic in Sindh, 104 in Balochistan, 225 in Punjab, 31 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 71 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 11 in Islamabad and one in Azad Kashmir.
Earlier, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, while addressing the nation, said that complete lockdown in the country due to the coronavirus will badly affect the livelihood of poverty-stricken people as Pakistan does not have enough resources to provide free food to the people at their homes.
