90 MPs ask UK govt to repatriate stranded Britons in Pakistan

LONDON: The 90 British parliamentarians have urged the British government to ensure immediate steps to repatriate around 6,000 stranded Britons in Pakistan and consider making special arrangements for their repatriation.

Labour MP Afzal Khan has written to UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab requesting the urgent repatriation of British nationals in Pakistan. The letter has been signed by 90 members of Parliament which include Naz Shah MP for Bradford West, Imran Hussain MP, Khalid Mahmood MP, Yasmin Qureshi MP, Claudia Webbe MP, Sam Tarry MP, Mohammad Yasin MP, former shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP, Lord Nazir Ahmed and many others.

Afzal Khan, who is Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Member of Parliament from Gorton in Manchester, and is also a part of Labour's shadow cabinet highlighted his suspicions on the ability of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to bring back all Britons safely.

In the letter: he writes, "Given many of our constituents recent experiences of PIA, who have cancelled numerous flights to the UK at the last minute after charging nearly £1000 per ticket, most British nationals have little trust in PIA to carry them home. "It is deeply disappointing to see our government leaving British nationals at the hands of commercial enterprises, capitalising on this crisis."

MP Afzal Khan further stated that there were over 6,000 British nationals who were looking for urgent repatriation but the special flights announced by the governments of Pakistan and the UK were not enough to bring all of them back.

Speaking to The News, Afzal Khan said he understood that British government has launched chartered flights for several countries including several flights from India to bring over British citizens. He questioned why the govt has not done the same for Pakistani where at one point more than 10,000 Britons were stranded.

MP Naz Shah has also taken up the issue of stranded Britons in Pakistan and has also held a live telephone call with Pakistan's Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Zulfiqar Bukhari. Due to collective efforts of Pakistani origin parliamentarians, the government of Pakistan had announced a price cap of £750 per flight each way but it has been reported that many flights had been charged much more than that. A great number of flights did not operate despite the tickets being sold.