Aftab Sherpao asks govt to resume flight operations from Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Wednesday asked the government to resume the flight operations from Peshawar to bring back the Pakistanis stranded in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

“The government should restart the flight operations from Peshawar as the residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had to arrive in other cities from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states due to the closure of the airport in the provincial capital,” he said in a statement issued from Watan Kor.

Aftab Sherpao criticised the government for ignoring the Pakistanis, who had stuck in Saudi Arabia due to the cancellations of the flights in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The QWP leader said the overseas Pakistanis played a key role in the development of the country as they sent remittances to Pakistan. He further said that like the entire world, the coronavirus related restrictions had also caused problems for the Pakistanis working in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East.

He asked the government to bring back the overseas Pakistanis particularly those working as labourers. He maintained that more than 2.5 million Pakistanis worked in Saudi Arabia and a large number of Pakhtuns were among them. He said that the overseas Pakistanis were an asset to the country as they sent billions of remittances to the country, therefore, the government should heed their plight and take immediate steps to facilitate them. Aftab Sherpao said that his party had always raised voice for the rights of the Pakhtuns and would continue to do so in the future as well. He said that the QWP would not abandon the Pakhtuns at the critical juncture.