F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaisar Wednesday directed all stranded Tableeghis, Zaireen and Overseas Pakistanis who had tested negative for coronavirus or completed quarantine period must be immediately repatriated to their homes by federal and provincial governments due to advent of holy month of Ramazan.
Chairing a meeting of the Functional Committee of the Parliament on COVID-19 affectees at the Parliament House, the speaker commended the job done by the Sub-committee led by Shehryar Afridi and directed the committee to take up the issues faced by the journalist community and get them resolved.
He also directed Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate for Ramazan package for laid off overseas Pakistanis.
Convener of the Sub-committee of the Functional Committee, Shehryar Afridi briefed the Committee on steps taken to repatriate the Tableeghi, Zaireen and Overseas Pakistanis. He said that over 10,000 Tableeghi and Zaireen had been repatriated domestically while rests were being facilitated by the authorities concerned.
He said that the focal persons of the provinces needed to respond proactively to the committee while the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs were taking lead in facilitating the return of the trapped religious travellers.
Briefing the committee on the issues faced by the journalist community, Afridi said that a delegation of Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) had submitted a charter of demands and there was a need to facilitate the working journalists with safety kits. He said that the government should take immediate measures to ensure that working journalists might not be laid off during COVID-19 while salaries of journalists needed to be paid which were pending for almost 11 months.
Afridi said that PRA had also requested to the prime minister to announce a package for journalist community who had been affected due to coronavirus pandemic. He said the prime minister might launch a data collection application for working journalists while proper legislation would also be made for protection of jobs of the working journalists.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefed the functional committee on measures being taken to facilitate the return of stranded Pakistanis and foreigners. He said that around 46,743 stranded Pakistanis had registered themselves with Pakistani missions abroad out of which 2054 Tableeghis who were mostly in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Uganda and Chad. He said that 5629 Overseas Pakistanis had repatriated while 428 inmates had also been brought home from jails abroad. “We need to devise a national strategy to deal with the issue of laid off Pakistanis abroad. We are repatriating people in a regulated manner. Our foreign missions are being directed to facilitate the return of overseas Pakistanis,” he added. He said that during Ramazan, Sehri and Iftar for stranded Pakistanis would be a major challenge which the MoFA was trying to facilitate. Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri said that SoPs needed to be followed by returning Tableeghis and Zaireen.
Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that over 7313 overseas Pakistanis had been repatriated through 17 flights. He said another 20 flights would bring home another 3370 stranded overseas Pakistanis soon. PIA has given major contribution in that regard, he added.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari said that Pakistan was in talks with the UAE government and all possible measures were being taken to facilitate the stranded Pakistanis. He said that Pakistan had also requested the UAE authorities to arrange payment for repatriation of labourers and their dues.
“We are also negotiating with Qatari government and trying to negotiate for payment of due of the Pakistani workers. PTI government has sent one million workers abroad while the figure of laid off people is not more than 10,000,” he added. He said that Pakistan had also asked Qatar Airways to transport stranded Overseas Pakistanis from USA and three flights would be allowed every week.
