Zulfi Bukhari thinks it would be foolish to evacuate Pakistani students in China

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfikar Bukhari said Tuesday it would be “foolish” to evacuate Pakistani students stuck in China till the situation on coronavirus remains unclear.

Bukhari spoke on the evacuation of Pakistani students stuck in Chinese city of Wuhan to reporters after attending a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.

The SAPM said Coronavirus situation was evolving daily, while citing the examples of cases reported in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. He also spoke about the number of quarantine days being changed every day for patients diagnosed with the disease.

“If we bring the kids and people back at once and keep them in quarantine for 14 days. And then we learn that three months of quarantine was required or this will spread, then who will be responsible,” Bukhari asked.

The SAPM said the government was closely monitoring the situation and would take a decision of evacuating the students in China as soon as they “know the fixed number of days of keeping a person in quarantine”.

“It’s an evolving situation, which is changing day by day, and taking a decision on it at once would be foolish,” remarked Bukhari.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah is hearing a petition filed by the parents of the Pakistani students stuck in Chinese city of Wuhan due to coronavirus outbreak.

In a hearing last week, Justice Minallah had remarked that it was the government's responsibility to decide about Pakistani students who are trapped in Wuhan as the "situation is serious".

The students' parents had told the court multiple times that the government was not providing them with any answers.

“This is a serious situation and the government of Pakistan needs to make a decision on this,” the IHC's top judge had remarked.

In January, a group of Pakistani students had demanded the government to make efforts to rescue them from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, according to a video uploaded on social media.

Wuhan has been under a virtual lock-down for days, with transport suspended and citizens told to stay home as the death toll from the viral epidemic that originated in the city soars.

According to a student from the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, there are about 200 Pakistani students in the institute, and a total of 2,000 in other universities of the city. 

Summary sent to PM to appoint welfare attache

Earlier, the SAPM told the National Assembly committee that community welfare station are present in countries where there are a number of Pakistanis.

“In Saudi Arabia the number of welfare community has been increased from four to six,” Bukhari had told the lawmakers. He added that his ministry has sent a summary to the Prime Minister to appoint welfare attache in embassy’s.