Govt trying its best to facilitate overseas Pakistanis: Farooqui

Spokesperson for Pakistan’s Foreign Office, Dr Aisha Farooqui on Sunday said that Pakistani embassies across the globe were working tirelessly to accommodate overseas Pakistanis amid the global coronavirus outbreak.

The spokesperson said that Pakistan’s embassies are stretched across the globe in over 100 countries, she said that due to the sheer number of overseas Pakistani’s some difficulties may have come up.

Aishah Farooqui also entailed that if the working of Pakistan government and embassies is broken down into prioritized phases then the first priority was given to stranded Pakistanis at various airports in the world, after that the next priority was given to low and mid-range earning Pakistanis in foreign lands.

Aisha Farooqui said that phone lines at embassy jammed due for a while because of the influx of calls being received during these testing times, she urged people to remain patient.

The spokesperson also said that the embassies are helping overseas Pakistanis with their repatriation, visa extensions and are also giving monetary support to people.

She said that a large number of Pakistanis are residents in Gulf countries and are mostly from the labour class, they are low on funds and income as businesses across the world suffer suspensions due to coronavirus.

She also revealed that people who have no place to go in foreign countries are being given temporary living arrangements in various hotels till the threat of the virus subsides.