RAWALPINDI, Jan 2: Heads of state of Saarc member countries will start arriving here early on Saturday morning at Islamabad International Airport.

The first dignitaries to arrive here will be the Nepalese prime minister and the king of Bhutan.

The Bangladeshi prime minister and Maldivian president will reach in the evening, while the Indian prime minister will land here at night. The Sri Lankan president will arrive on Sunday morning.

The airport will remain closed from 6am to 11pm on Saturday and 2am to 10am on Sunday. Due to this closure, nine PIA flights have been re-routed for Saturday and will now be operating from Lahore. The re-routed flights are PK-785, PK-739, PK-701, PK-300, PK-368, PK-301, PK- 308, PK-369 and PK-363.

Sixteen domestic flights scheduled to operate on Saturday have been cancelled. These flights are PK-356, PK-381, PK-390, PK-391, PK-451, PK-452, PK-251, PK-252, PK-362, PK-388, PK-319, PK-370, PK-741, PK-742, PK-352 and PK-309.

Three flights schedules for Sunday have been cancelled, which are PK-362, PK-365 and PK-369. Haj flights have also been affected and will be departing earlier than their scheduled time. Besides, a large number of flights of foreign and private carriers scheduled to operate during these days have been either cancelled or re-routed.