On Wednesday, Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif was informed that the stranded Pakistani nationals arriving in Beirut from Syria will be brought back to Pakistan by a chartered flight between December 12 and 13.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday said that the Prime Minister was briefed on the situation of Pakistani nationals in Syria when he chaired an important meeting on their evacuation.
During the meeting, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal was entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring a warm welcome to the returning Pakistanis at the airport.
Pakistanis were stranded after rebels ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning strike led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group and its allies, marking a spectacular end to a five-decade rule.
In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a telephonic conversation with his Lebanese counterpart Najeeb Meqati and sought his support for the immediate evacuation of Pakistani nationals stranded in Syria via Beirut.
Makati assured Shahbaz Sharif that Lebanon would wholeheartedly welcome Pakistani citizens from Syria and provide all possible assistance to them in their safe return home.
Later, around 350 Pakistani citizens, including 245 Pakistani pilgrims stranded in Syria, crossed the Syria-Lebanon border to return home safely.
Meanwhile, rebel leader Ahmed al-Shaara’s group is stamping its authority on the Syrian state with the same lightning speed that it has seized, deploying police, establishing a transitional government and meeting with foreign ambassadors. – expressing concern over how the new rulers of Damascus intend to engage. to be
Since Shariah’s HTS group led a rebel coalition toppling Assad from power on Sunday, his bureaucrats – who until last week had been running the administration in a remote corner of Syria’s northwest – have been running the government in Damascus. Have moved to the headquarters.
The appointment of regional government chief Mohammad al-Bashir in the HTS enclave of Idlib as Syria’s new interim prime minister on Monday underscored the group’s status as the most powerful of the armed groups that 13 have been fighting to end for over a year. Assad’s iron-fisted rule.
Although it was part of al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016, HTS has targeted tribal leaders, local officials and ordinary Syrians during its march to Damascus. He was assured that he would protect minority beliefs while gaining widespread approval.
The message helped smooth the rebels’ advance and Shariah – known as Abu Muhammad al-Golani – has repeated it since Assad’s ouster.