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Seventy-nine Pakistani pilgrims have been evacuated to Beirut while the Syrian rebels now in power have appointed Mohammed al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1, state media said on Tuesday, a day after talks began on the transfer of power following ex-president Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
Assad fled Syria as the opposition alliance swept into the capital Damascus, bringing a spectacular end on Sunday to five decades of brutal rule by his clan.
He oversaw a crackdown on a democracy movement that erupted in 2011, sparking a civil war that killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.
“The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1,” said a statement attributed to Bashir on state television’s Telegram account, referring to him as “the new Syrian prime minister”.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the federal cabinet was briefed on the evacuation of Pakistanis from Syria in the context of the latest situation, according to a statement by state broadcaster PTV.
The cabinet members were informed that 79 out of 250 Pakistani pilgrims in Syria had reached Beirut from where they would be brought back to Pakistan. The statement added that seven out of around 20 teachers and students in Syria had also reached Beirut.
The meeting’s participants were further informed that the authorities of the Pakistani embassy in Syria and Lebanon were taking all possible steps to ensure the safe return of citizens from Syria.
