ISLAMABAD: Lawmakers on Monday highlighted miseries of stranded overseas Pakistanis in various countries, especially in the Middle East, in the aftermath of Covid-19 and urged the government to bring them back within a week on a war footing under an “emergency evacuation programme”.

The government also faced wrath of the members, including some of those sitting on the treasury benches, in the National Assembly for its failure to take timely action to prevent crops from locusts’ attack when the lower house of parliament went into session after a two-day recess.

The demand for immediate repatriation of thousands of overseas Pakistanis was made by lawmakers after Ahsan Iqbal of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) raised the matter while speaking on a point of order before the house started a general debate on unprecedented locust invasion of crops in various parts of the country.

Mr Iqbal suggested that the government should approach the defence ministry and use C-130 aircraft of Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy’s ships to bring back overseas Pakistanis. The demand was later endorsed by a couple of other lawmakers, who suggested the use of sea route for bringing back Pakistanis from Gulf countries.

Lawmakers assail government for its ‘failure’ to take timely action over locust attack

Parliamentary leader of the PML-N Khawaja Asif said there were 70,000 Pakistanis who wanted to come back to the country from the UAE alone and thousands of them had been present in the parking lot of the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai seeking help from authorities to return to their homeland.

He said that 25,000 Pakistanis had already become jobless in the UAE, adding that almost the same was the situation in Morrocco and Saudi Arabia.

The PML-N leader said that besides the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), services of other airlines like Emirates and Qatar Airways could also be utilised. He said planes could also be chartered to bring back these Pakistanis who had been in miserable condition after losing jobs.

Riaz Fatiyana of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) recalled that there was a time when people used to go to Haj by ships which could again be used to bring back these stranded Pakistanis on a war footing.

He said navy should be asked to arrange ferries for the purpose.

Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) said there were 480 Pakistani students stranded in Makkah and Madina waiting for flights to return to their homeland.

Saleh Muhammad of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) accused the staff of Pakistan embassy in Saudi capital Riyadh of was not helping the community and the ambassador did not even have time to meet the people.

Responding to speeches, federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said it was utmost effort of the government to bring back all stranded Pakistanis on emergency basis.

He pointed out that there were over 120,000 overseas Pakistanis who wanted to return to the country.

The minister informed the house that over 35,000 stranded Pakistanis had so far been brought back to the country from different parts of the world. Besides this, he said as many as 73 bodies from the UAE and 46 from Saudi Arabia had also been brought to the country.

He said the prime minister had taken notice of reports about overcharging of fares and directed the Dubai consulate to take action against those charging over 1,120 UAE dirham.

Locust Attack

Taking part in the debate on the locust invasion of crops, lawmakers lambasted the government over its failure to foresee the attack and for not giving importance to the agriculture sector.

Opening the debate, PML-N MNA from Bahawalpur Riaz Hussain Pirzada, who had raised the issue for the first time in the assembly a few months ago, warned that the country could face famine if steps were not taken to eliminate the locusts.

He said the former minister had stated that the government had released Rs500 million to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to deal with locust issue, but the Supreme Court during a hearing on the matter was told that the government was still thinking of making a plan.

“The NDMA is headed by those who consider themselves the most intelligent and who believe that they can resolve every matter. Now they have already received the money as well,” the MNA said, warning that the cotton crop was under threat.

Mr Pirzada said that the growers had been facing great difficulties as they did not get any share from huge subsidies which the government announced from time to time. He said this year, the country had had a very good crop of tomatoes, but growers had been forced to sell it on nominal rates due to the closure of restaurants and hotels in the country due to Covid-19 situation.

The most hard-hitting speech was made by PTI’s Sanaullah Mastikhel who said the government was forcing farmers to either go on hunger strike or stage sit-ins due to their poor conditions.

He regretted that the speaker had constituted a special committee on agriculture, but it had not been consulted so far on the upcoming federal budget which the government was about to present on June 12.

Mr Mastikhel claimed that the locust invasion was “more dangerous” for the country than coronavirus.

Federal Minister for National Food Security Fakhar Imam highlighted efforts being made by the government to control the damage caused by locusts.

He said it was the biggest locust attack over the last 27 years, adding that the army was assisting authorities in handling the situation and it had even provided five helicopters for the purpose. He said that 8,000 army men were busy in the fight against locust in coordination with the local authorities.

He also lauded China for its help to Pakistan in this regard.

Earlier, parliamentary secretary for finance Zain Qureshi laid Prevention of Smuggling Ordinance 2020 and the Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 before the National Assembly.

Chairman Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Junaid Akbar presented the report of the committee on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority Bill, 2020.

The National Assembly will now meet on Wednesday morning.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020