Aviation Minister Malik Ghulam Sarwar has said that on May 18, flights will depart to Wuhan to bring back Pakistani students stranded in the Chinese city. He was addressing national assembly session on Friday.

Aviation Minister said thousands of stranded Pakistanis, including students, workers, members of Tableeghi Jamaat, and pilgrims, from across the globe have been repatriated. He said Pakistani prisoners from Oman and the United Arab Emirates were brought back free of cost. He said Aviation Division operated 181 inbound flights and took over 25,000 passengers to their destinations in 27 countries.

He said around 250 students from Wuhan and China will be repatriated through special flight on Monday. Sarwar told the lower house that airline staff were also “on the frontline” in the fight against the virus and were risking their lives and health.

The minister also shared that the CAA was also incurring losses of Rs2.5 billion in losses, while PIA is incurring losses of Rs5 billion.

On the other hand, Pakistan International Airlines bright back 138 Pakistanis today from Oman in special flight. Sources also reported that another special flight of PIA brought 237 stranded Pakistanis in Qatar.

Let it be known that total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan during the last 24 hours rises to 37,218 with 803 deaths.