Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yousaf Friday said the government wanted to increase inbound flight operation after evolving consensus with all federating units.
Chairing a meeting at National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) held to discuss testing regime of inbound passengers, he said the government wanted to bring 50,000 to 70,000 stranded Pakistanis home every week. However, the government does not want to impose its decision on the provinces.
Moeed asked Punjab to submit their categorical proposals if any regarding inbound flight passengers by Saturday noon.
Currently a majority agreed on allowing the return of maximum passengers by strict screening, testing of symptomatic and sending them home with comprehensive home quarantine guidlines as well as associating track and trace mechanism. The COVID-19 positive passenger would be dealt accordingly with the help of Data base generated by FIA, NADRA and PTA.
Moeed said the government wanted to bring back 10,000 passengers daily, as over 200,000 Pakistanis stranded abroad are desperate to return home. He asked provinces to persistently share details of COVID-19 positive inbound passengers with the NCOC to help devising plans. Moeed said the government wanted to open its airspace only after evolving consensus. As many as 336 flights a week are being planned which is 40 percent of our full capacity.
Moeed said the policy to deal with foreigners at country’s borders would be changed from Sunday.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari said the daily testing of 50,000 passengers is almost impossible.
The meeting was attended by high ranking officers of all provinces including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
