ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government is operating special flights to evacuate some 15,000 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia in the next five days, officials said on Monday.
The Kingdom granted a special waiver to Islamabad, relaxing the ban imposed on all commercial flights since last Sunday to fight the coronavirus spread
Saudi Arabia has taken some far-reaching steps among Gulf states by halting international flights and canceling the Umrah pilgrimage in a bid to stem the spread of virus.
After the Saudi announcement, Pakistani authorities are struggling to bring back the pilgrims through special flights.
“We will bring all of them [pilgrims] back in three to five days,” Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, special assistant to the prime minister on overseas Pakistanis, said in a video message on Monday.
However, he said that all the passengers evacuated from Saudi Arabia would be kept in quarantine in Pakistan. “We will let them go only after complete screening,” he added.
The Consul General of Pakistan in Jeddah, Khalid Majid, has thanked the Saudi authorities for promptly responding to the gravity of the situation and granting permission to evacuate its citizens.
Majid said that Saudi authorities have allowed all the Pakistani airlines to complete their umrah operation to evacuate the pilgrims.
The pilgrims have been flying back to Pakistan gradually and their number has reduced from 40,000 last week to 15,000 on Monday, he said.
Regarding the stay of umrah pilgrims, the consul general said the Saudi authorities have directed all local travel agents to accommodate the pilgrims till their flights are rescheduled. “Any travel agent not adhering to the directions will be penalized,” he said.
Majid said the Saudi Airline is rescheduling flights without any additional financial charges, while Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was also reached except some local mandatory taxes.
“Saudi authorities have assured to accord due sympathetic consideration and resolve cases if visa of a pilgrim expires due to delay caused by current flight rescheduling,” the consul general added.
Meanwhile, the PIA has brought back 17,152 pilgrims back home through 65 special flights between March 13 and March 15.
Abdullah Hafeez Khan, General Manager PIA Coordination and Public Affairs, said the airlines had scheduled 22 special flights from March 15 to 17 to bring back 7,900 pilgrims, but they had booked only 5,000 passengers so far.
“We still have 2,000 seats vacant in our special flights and appeal to the pilgrims to contact our offices as soon as possible to book their tickets,” Khan told Arab News.
“We have been operating these ferry flights purely for public interest and our pilgrims in Saudi Arabia must avail them at the earliest,” he said.
