The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) has started special flights from today till April 19 to bring back the 1,800 stranded Pakistanis from abroad, a PIA spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that 400 Umrah pilgrims from Saudi Arabia will be brought back in two flights each and will land at Multan and Lahore airports.

While two special PIA flights will land in Peshawar and Faisalabad from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in which 770 passengers and prisoners being released from Oman.

According to the spokesman, 270 stranded Pakistani nationals in Thailand and Japan will land in Islamabad on Tuesday.

A total of 225 persons will be brought back to the country from Indonesia on April 18.

PIA will operate special flights on April 17 and April 18 for Manchester (PK8852 and 8894) and South Korea respectively while special flights on April 18 for Kuala Lumpur and PK-889 for Jakarta, Indonesia.

PIA will fly two special flights on April 15 and April 19 from Islamabad and Karachi for Toronto, Canada.  

Earlier Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said “Nine special flights will bring Pakistanis back home,” he shared at the meeting of Parliament Special Committee on Coronavirus in Islamabad.

The minister said that so for 1,640 stranded Pakistanis have been repatriated through 12 special flights while another 39,7478 are still waiting to come back home.

He said that many Pakistanis in the United Arab Emirates had lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Qureshi informed that 2,248 Pakistanis members of Tableeghi Jamaat were wishing their repatriation from Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.

“Pakistani citizens, including students, living in the United States and Canada, are also desirous of coming back - that takes the tally to 40,000 people wishing to be repatriated.”