Govt making efforts to bring back the bodies of Pakistanis died abroad: Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari has said government of Pakistan is making efforts to bring back the bodies of those Pakistani who have died aboard due to COVID-19.

Expressing condolences with the bereaved families, Zulfiqar Bukhari said that suspension of flights amid the coronavirus epidemic in different countries were the major hurdle in bringing back the bodies.

He further said that the Pakistani authorities were collecting data of those Pakistanis who died in other countries. Zulfiqar Bukhari has assured the bereaved families that the government was with them in this difficult time.

The special assistant said bodies of the Pakistanis who had died in foreign countries had been kept in morgues. Bodies of several Pakistani citizens who died abroad of either the COVID-19 or natural causes wait to be repatriated, putting their mourning families in a limbo.

Earlier, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser had assured overseas Pakistanis that the officials were making all essential arrangements for bringing them back to Pakistan.

The speaker informed them that minister of aviation, management of Pakistan International Airlines and other relevant ministers had been called to discuss arrangements for the safe repatriation of stranded Pakistani.

On April 15, Pakistan International Airlines had issued a schedule for special international flights to repatriate several Pakistanis stranded in different countries due to the coronavirus pandemic.