Parents want their kids back from China

ISLAMABAD: Visibly perturbed and emotionally charged, the parents of students stranded in China’s Wuhan city and Hubei province Wednesday served a three-day ultimatum to the government. “If you fail to get our children repatriated within the next three days, we will hold demonstrations in front of your ministerial offices and the Embassy of China,” they warned the Prime Minister’s Special Advisers on Health and Overseas Pakistanis, Dr. Zafar Mirza and Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, respectively, here on Wednesday. The encounter took place during a briefing held at the OPF Girls College in F-8/2, where both the PM’s Advisers were subjected to scathing criticism as they attempted to apprise parents of the latest situation in China, where Novel Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on human lives. The briefing was arranged on the orders of the Islamabad High Court. There was absolute mayhem in the auditorium, so much so that members of law enforcement agencies had to shield the two advisers from being attacked by anxious parents who later registered their protest by staging a ‘dharna’ on Kohistan Road, causing traffic snags.