An aircraft carrying 149 Pakistani nationals evacuated from Sudan arrived in Karachi on Friday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.
Two other flights carrying around 200 Pakistanis are expected to arrive later today. One of them originated from Port Sudan and the other from Jeddah to bring back Pakistanis who had earlier been evacuated there.
The Foreign Office launched its evacuation operation to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in war-hit Sudan ever since the conflict began earlier this month.
Baloch said the evacuation plan has been implemented in phases: in the first phase of the operation, over 800 Pakistanis were transported from Khartoum to Port Sudan, which was relatively safe.
The second phase of the evacuation operation, the spokesperson added, consisted of transporting Pakistani nationals from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, or directly to Pakistan.
Today’s flights, operating from Port Sudan via Jeddah, mark the first part of this second phase. Additional flights are planned, she said.
"We remain engaged with friendly countries in the region and are especially grateful to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for facilitating this process by providing transport by ferry from Port Sudan to Jeddah and also hosting Pakistani nationals until their repatriation to Pakistan," she said during her weekly briefing.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari welcomed the return of the first batch of evacuated Pakistanis.
“We will continue to work until every Pakistani in Sudan is evacuated and brought home safe at the earliest,” assured the foreign minister.
In a separate statement, a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) spokesperson stated that Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu ordered a PAF fleet to “carry out swift evacuation of stranded Pakistanis from conflict-hit Sudan” on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
“Air Force is making all-out efforts to repatriate stranded Pakistanis in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pakistan Embassies in Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Rescued Pakistanis from Port Sudan New International Airport are being transported by PAF aircraft,” the statement said.
The air force assured that it would continue to repatriate the Pakistanis to their homeland. It added that the evacuated families expressed their gratitude to the government and appreciated PAF for their timely rescue amidst the rapidly deteriorating situation in Sudan.
Thumbnail image of stranded Pakistanis stepping out of aircraft after reaching Karachi on April 28, 2023 has been taken from Twitter/@ForeignOfficePk
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