Pakistan halts flights to and from China with immediate effect
1 min read
Pakistan on Friday halted flights to and from China with immediate effect, a civil aviation official said, as the death toll from a virus outbreak spreading in China mounted and the World Health Organisation called it a global health emergency.
“We are suspending flights to China until February 2,” Senior Joint Secretary of aviation Abdul Sattar Khokhar told Reuters by phone, adding the situation would be reviewed after that date.
He declined to comment on the reason for the closure.
On Thursday, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) decided to suspend flights to Beijing until Feb 2.
Khokhar told Dawn that PIA had been operating two flights between Pakistan and China but it had decided to suspend flight operations.
PIA had started two flights a week to Tokyo and Beijing in May 2019 after a gap of three months.
Yesterday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza announced that the government had decided not to repatriate Pakistani citizens stranded in China in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO.
“We believe that right now, it is in the interest of our loved ones in China [to stay there]. It is in the larger interest of the region, world, country that we don’t evacuate them now,” he told reporters at a press conference in Islamabad.
“This is what the World Health Organisation is saying, this is China’s policy and this is our policy as well. We stand by China in full solidarity,” he declared.
About The Author
