CAA allows US flight carrying Pakistani deportees to land at Islamabad airport

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan has allowed a chartered flight, bringing back deportees from the United States (US) to land at Islamabad International Airport on January 20, ARY NEWS reported.

According to details, the US Embassy in Islamabad had requested the foreign ministry to allow a flight bringing back eight Pakistanis via a special plane. The foreign ministry then asked the CAA to approve the arrival of the flight.

The chartered plane would make stops at the Czech Republic and Bulgarian airports, before reaching the Islamabad airport on January 20.

A notification issued by the CAA Director Transport regarding the flight read that the crew members inside the chartered plane would not be allowed to come out of the aircraft.

The crew members of the plane are asked to strictly comply with the COVID-19 SOPs and the chartered flight would have to leave immediately after handing over the deportees.

It is pertinent to mention here that flights carrying deportees are allowed to land at the nation-wide airports.

In November 2020, Saudi Arabia deported 140 Pakistanis from the kingdom over their alleged involvement in criminal and illegal activities.

The passengers arrived in Saudi Arabia but were not allowed by the immigration authorities to proceed further after it emerged that they were allegedly involved in illegal activities.

The passengers were then deported and were brought back to the Multan International Airport via Saudi Airline flight.

The passengers later staged a protest over the deportation and also had exchanged heated arguments with officials at the Multan airport. They demanded of the government to take notice of the matter.