Govt reply sought on plea for evacuation of Pakistani students from virus epicentre.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit comments on a petition seeking directives for the government to make arrangements to airlift Pakistani students from Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah, in its written verdict instructed the ministry to furnish the reply before the next hearing slated for Feb 11. It is further required to place on record details of measures the government has taken to evacuate Pakistani students from the high-risk areas of China.

During the hearing on Friday, Advocate Jahangir Jadoon had stated before the court that there is no information about what measures the government has thus far taken to block the spread of the virus as over 20,000 Chinese nationals are living in the federal capital.

Mian Muhammad Faisal moved the petition citing the secretaries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Health as respondents.

He submitted in the petition that the coronavirus outbreak has thus far killed over 200 people in China, triggering panic the world over...