KARACHI: Prompted by calls for help by three Pakistani students stuck in China’s Wuhan city, the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, the country’s major charity group told Arab News on Monday that it was waiting for an official go-ahead to bring them home.
“We are awaiting the government’s response to our request, which was prompted by appeals from Pakistani students stuck in Wuhan city,” Faisal Edhi, the managing trustee of the Edhi Foundation said.
Earlier on Saturday, in a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Edhi had sought permission to help evacuate the Pakistani students from the affected areas.
“[The] coronavirus is spreading in China very fast….. Pakistani students in Wuhan, China are in our contact and we want to evacuate these students from China,” excerpts from the letter read, adding that the students were “mentally disturbed and in stress”.
He further requested the foreign minister to help identify areas “where the students [will be] quarantined until the coronavirus [is tested] negative.”
“Upon your permission, we will contact the airlines and arrange chartered flights to evacuate them at the earliest,” Edhi wrote, adding that several countries, including India, had already evacuated their citizens.
The Foreign Office did not respond to queries when contacted by Arab News.
However, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services, Dr. Zafar Mirza, tweeted on Sunday that the issue is being discussed at the highest level and a decision will be taken, considering all factors involved.
“210/ My very dear students in China & ur respectable family members, v r intensely discussing the situation @ highest level & will make the bst decision in view of all factors with ref to devastating #coronavirus potential global pandemic. Rest assured you are our own & we care!” he tweeted.
Dr. Mirza also shared a response from the China mission in Pakistan which said that the students are “well protected.”
“We have full understanding of the situation of the Pakistani students in Wuhan and Hubei Province. China will care about you as our own. Things are getting better, and please rest assured you are well protected,” the statement read.
Muslim Qadir, one of the three students, who appealed to the Edhi Foundation for help told Arab News when by WhatsApp that the situation in Wuhan city was not good.
“Everywhere, roads are close and [we] are afraid to go down around to take something. We are in rooms from January 21. We are afraid that our government is not taking any serious action. [It seems] like we are not citizens of Pakistan,” Qadir said, urging the government to allow the Edhi Foundation to evacuate more than 2,000 students.
In their letter to the Edhi group, which was last week, the students added that “there is silence and fear ruling all over the city” of 11 million people.
“...The epidemic is continuously affecting every citizen’s home. After January 22, the entire city of Wuhan has been locked down. Other countries rushed to evacuate their students,” they wrote, adding that on contacting the Pakistani Embassy in Beijing, they were asked to register online.
“We were given some [phone] numbers that started closing or getting busy a few days later,” they said.
