RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has made special arrangements and planned a flight on Monday (today) to bring parliamentarians from Karachi and Quetta to Islamabad for the National Assembly and Senate sessions.

However, their return flight is yet to be planned.

According to a PIA spokesman, the route for PK-8352 will be Karachi-Quetta-Islamabad. The departure time of the flight from Karachi is 8am which is scheduled to land in Quetta at 9:20am and depart for Islamabad at 10:15am. The special flight is expected to land in Islamabad at 11:45 am.

The parliamentarians were requested to get their tickets reissued from the PIA counter at Parliament House Islamabad between 10am and 3pm on May 10.

The lawmakers were advised to get themselves tested for Covid-19 before boarding the aircraft, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has already issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for international flights to Pakistan.

Aircraft operations shall be subjected to full compliance of CAA’s instructions regarding disinfection, passenger and crew protection along with measures to minimise the risks associated with Covid-19.

A spokesman for the Aviation Division said domestic flight operations had not resumed so a separate SOP for that purpose had not been released. But almost all other conditions described in the SOP for international flights will be applicable on the special domestic flight for parliamentarians.

He said similar procedures for parliamentarians will be followed and everybody will be subjected to thermal scanning before embarking and after disembarking and if fever is detected in anyone they will be referred to a doctor.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2020