Prime Minister’s Special Assistant (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistani Syed Zulfi Bukhari said a new flight schedule is being prepared under which Pakistanis would be brought back to Pakistan in various countries, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“I know about the difficulties being faced in the UAE, however, I would still urge the Pakistani community who can stay in UAE to remain there as Pakistan does not have enough bandwidth to bring back all overseas Pakistanis in one go,” said Bukhari in his video message.

The SAPM told there would be one flight on April 18th and then we will make a new flight schedule under which priority will be given to those Pakistanis facing transit visa issues, visa expiry or job losses, those flights will start after April 18th, he added.

“Pakistan only had a capacity to bring back only 2,000 passengers in a week, whereas our people were trapped all across the world. We have got permission to expand these numbers to 8,000 passengers (a week) and Pakistanis stuck in UAE would be our priority,” said Bukhari.

Bukhari said we’d be using UAE aircraft alongside our PIA carriers after 18th April. He said the government monitors the situation on a daily basis but needs time to bring back Pakistanis from overseas to the country.