Stuck in Pakistan.

Byline: Rafia Zakaria

A FEW days ago, Dr Moeed Yusuf, special adviser to the prime minister, held a press conference. One of its main goals appeared to be the provision of reliable information (and some explanations) about Pakistanis who have been stuck abroad. Dr Yusuf, who appears to be leading the government's effort to repatriate Pakistanis, is a good candidate for this task, not least because he himself was an overseas Pakistani until not too long ago.

According to Dr Yusuf, thousands of Pakistanis remain stranded in places like the United Arab Emirates. Some are apparently so completely without means that they are literally homeless and living on the streets. Government-established criteria for repatriation prioritises such cases because of the obvious urgency of their situation. Others, stuck in over 80 countries, who meet the government-established criteria will also be repatriated but will likely have to wait longer.

All this must be good news for the more than 60,000 Pakistanis who are awaiting repatriation. Against their large numbers, the repatriation flights that the various Pakistani embassies abroad have been able to arrange seem like a small trickle. Fifty Pakistanis stuck in Columbo boarded a SriLankan Airlines flight a few days ago and were able to return. Another 40 were brought back a couple of days ago. In places where PIA does not have landing rights, arrangements are being made with other airlines (Qatar Airways was specifically mentioned) so that people can still be brought back home.

The task of finding out how to get back to Pakistan and which flights are available or which ones have been cancelled has been a near impossible task over the past few weeks. The pandemic lockdown has perpetuated many problems and confusion. The plight of these Pakistanis, a lot of them suddenly finding themselves 'unwanted' in the countries where they have worked for decades, is heartbreaking. Each lost job among the at least 60,000 Pakistanis means hundreds of thousands of rupees that will no longer accrue as remittances. Those are the very remittances that have kept Pakistan going for decades.

Apparently, some stranded individuals are completely without means and are living on the streets.

It would be more helpful to hear more about how the government plans to fill this giant hole in the country's GDP. Those, perhaps, are conversations that have been relegated to the 'after-times', those blessed days when the crisis has past and we...