Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers who fled Libya wait to be evacuated on March 3, 2011 at the airport in Djerba. — Photo by AFP

KARACHI: Around 200 Pakistani expatriates evacuated from Libya arrived in Islamabad on Friday, DawnNews reported.

The expatriates were flown from Tripoli and arrived in Islamabad via Jeddah at 0715 on Friday.

Speaking to media representatives, the expatriates said that conditions were still critical in Libya and that was why they had returned to Pakistan.

However, some expatriates said conditions were beginning to get better which was why some people who wanted to come back earlier did not return.

PIA has already brought 5,322 Pakistanis back to the country by six special flights.

Some 15,000 to 20,000 Pakistanis remained stranded in Libya, whereas a Monitoring Committee set up in Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) was monitoring the situation there and coordinating for an early repatriation of stranded persons.

Talking to APP, Managing Director OPF Habib Ur Rehman Khan said after Egypt the political unrest in the Middle East had spilled over into Libya.

He said the monitoring committee was working closely with the Special Task Force established in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad.

Khan said that the OPF Airport Counters are operative around the clock and OPF officials deputed at these airport counters were facilitating Pakistanis returning from Libya.