MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says the Foreign Ministry has established a crisis management cell to bring back the Pakistanis stranded abroad because of coronavirus.

He told the media here on Saturday that 39,748 Pakistanis had registered themselves with the ministry for their return to the country. They would be brought back gradually.

“I have contacted the foreign ministers of 30 countries in this regard,” he said.

He said that after the refusal from the provincial governments of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to open the airports, the federal government decided to open the Islamabad Airport.

“However, now the provincial governments have also agreed to open the airports. Pakistanis stranded in any country of world could contact the crisis management cell for their return. The first flight from Saudi Arab has also landed at Multan airport while Qatar Airways is going to start its operation to shift British citizen stranded in Pakistan,” he said.

He said 38 Pakistanis coming from all over the world at Islamabad International Airport had been tested positive.

“The foreign ministry has launched Foreign Office Contact Digital App through which 117 missions of 88 countries have been linked with my mobile phones,” he said. He said all the decisions in the meetings of national coordination committee in which all political parties have their representation are being taken unanimously.

“The prime minister announced special package for the restoration of construction industry while traders who had reservations over high interest rate had also been facilitated by lowering down the markup ratio,” he said.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had appealed to the Secretary General United Nations and global leaders for relief in loans for the 75 developing countries and the UN Secretary General endorsed this appeal for which we are thankful to him.

He said that Ehsaas Programme launched by the federal government was being appreciated in all over the world as the government had distributed Rs144 billion among 13 million families.

He said the Nishtar Hospital needed special attention in connection with coronavirus crisis as five new laboratories were established in the country but none of them had been established in Multan.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2020