ISLAMABAD: Stranded Pakistanis who were stuck in Syria following the ousting of President Bashar al Assad will be returning home tonight, officials informed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday.
According to a briefing held at the PM Office, Pakistanis who safely reached Beirut earlier would be flying out between the night of December 12 and 13. The responsibility of receiving the evacuees from the airport has been given to Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal.
In light of the deteriorating security situation in Syria, the PM had earlier directed the authorities to formulate an action plan for the safe evacuation of Pakistanis. The PM ensured facilitation from Beirut following his telephonic conversation with Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mikati. Around 350 Pakistani nationals including 245 Pakistani zaireen safely crossed the Syria-Lebanon border for repatriation.
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The PM had instructed the relevant departments to utilise “all available resources” to work on a solution. The PM directed the Pakistani embassy in Damascus to establish an information desk and a helpline to facilitate Pakistanis stranded in Syria. He also ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) Crisis Management Unit and information desks at Pakistani embassies in Syria and neighbouring countries to remain operational around the clock until the security situation improved.
Syrian rebel forces swept across Syria in a lightning offensive that overthrew 50 years of Assad family rule, replacing it with a three-month transitional government of ministers that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Syria’s northwest. Their leader Ahmad al-Sharaa – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – told Reuters in a written statement on Wednesday that he would dissolve the security forces of the toppled regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Also read: Evacuation plan for Pakistanis stranded in Syria ordered
The military command affiliated with his group, which is known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, already said they would grant an amnesty to military conscripts. He would now also “dissolve the security forces of the previous regime and close the notorious prison,” Sharaa said in a statement.
The group’s earlier affiliation with Al Qaeda had ended in 2016, lending reassurance to tribal leaders, local officials, and ordinary Syrians during its march to Damascus that it would protect minority faiths, winning broad approval.