Staff Reporter
Islamabad
A special plane of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will arrive in China to repatriate the first batch of Pakistanis – mostly students – from Wuhan on Monday (Tomorrow). ‘All the arrangements have been finalized to airlift Pakistani students from the city hit by COVID-19 through a special flight to be operated by the national flag carrier on May 18,’ according to official sources here on Sunday.
All the passengers will bear travelling expenditure for the special flights and after arriving in Pakistan will be subject to relevant procedures for containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Around 1,300 Pakistani students were studying in different universities in China’s Hubei province, including 800 students in Wuhan, epicenter of novel coronavirus outbreak, when the Chinese government decided to impose a lockdown in the city as well as the province.
Although, the Pakistan government has decided to bring all Pakistanis back at this stage; however, due to certain limitations, the return of laid off workers or those Pakistanis whose visa have expired would be prioritized.
Pakistan Ambassador to China, Naghmana Hashmi, in a recent interview, said Pakistan government took a difficult decision of not repatriating its students from Wuhan and Hubei province after a lockdown was imposed by the Chinese government on Janurary 20.
