Bureau Report
KARACHI: The Saudi Arabia on Wednesday has lifted ban on international flights coming from Pakistan after success in controlling coronavirus outbreak.In a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), the Saudi Arabia government has banned all flights coming from India, Brazil and Argentine over their failure to control COVID-19 outbreak.
“We cannot risk lives of our citizens by allowing flights from India, Brazil and Argentine”, the NOTAM read. Meanwhile, the Kingdom has lifted travel restrictions from Pakistan after it managed to contain spread of coronavirus in the country.
On September 13, The Kingdom had decided to lift travel restriction in the kingdom from 01 January 2021, imposed earlier owing to COVID-19 pandemic.
According to local media reports, the kingdom’s interior ministry had announced that airports, ports, and border routes would be made operational from January 01.
Saudi citizens would be able to freely move in and out of the kingdom while citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council states.
It is pertinent to mention here that the move was announced days after Saudi Arabia had extended a ban on the arrival of foreign airlines within the kingdom amid COVID-19 pandemic on August 29.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday are reported to have been facing challenges in availing their air tickets with limited flight operations and exorbitant rates.
Due to a limited number of flights scheduled for the destination, the seats are scarce while the ticket fares are exorbitant, the reports confirmed. Keeping in view the ongoing dilemma, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Overseas Pakistanis, have made contact with Saudi Human Resource vice-minister Dr Abdullah bin Nasser via video-link in which he appealed to the ministry to extend visas of Pakistan expatriates up to October 30.
The SAPM also called for an increase in the number of flights to allay the grievances of the many people intending to go back to work. Bukhari noted that the ticket are sold at exorbitant rates due to the scarcity of flights.
He added that many party supporters that sought to go back to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are now stranded here and are complaining. He said that due to the small number of planes scheduled for the KSA, the workers who seek to go back to their employments are now stuck in Pakistan, to which he requested the ministry to allow the rise in flight operations.
SAPM Bukhari appealed to the KSA ministry to extend the Iqama of the workers stranded due to flight operations by at least a month. Responding to the appeals made by SAPM Bukhari, Vice Minister Dr Nasser said that he will take up the issues of Iqama extension and expanding flight operations with relevant ministers in the next session.
