Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday received 205 stranded Pakistani students in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on their arrival at the Karachi airport on Thursday morning via a special flight and announced that he was arranging to bring another batch of 180 students, six of them injured, within a few days.
Talking to media, he said, “This was a matter of concern not just for families but for the entire Pakistan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries established a crisis management cell immediately to tackle the situation. Today, 205 students have arrived, and 99 of them are from Karachi.”
Out of 206 students, 150 are male and 55 females. Of 206 students who arrived on Thursday, 99 are from Karachi, 22 from Hyderabad, 15 from Naushehroferoze, 13 each from Khairpur and Sukkur, 12 from Shaheed Benazirabad, five each from Jacobabad, Badin and Dadu, three from Sanghar (Tando Adam), and one each from Kandhkot, Tharparkar.
The CM said that 180 students were still stranded in Kyrgyzstan, of whom six were injured. “The Sindh government will bear the expenses of the chartered flight to bring the remaining students back,” he vowed. Shah said the federal government’s relevant ministries and even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were figuring out a way for students to continue their academic journey. He added that Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto used his personal contacts in Kyrgyzstan to ensure students’ safety and directed him to facilitate the students. At Jinnah Terminal, the CM interacted with parents who reached there to receive their children. He assured them that his government was making all-out efforts to ensure the continuity of education of the students.