Egypt situation: Evacuation if crisis worsens’

FO says it will evacuate the 150 Pakistani families only if situation worsens.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday said it was monitoring the events unfolding in Egypt but would only evacuate its citizens from the Arab country if the situation worsened there.

The Foreign Office did not say exactly how it plans to bring back around 150 Pakistani families from the troubled Arab state whose people were on the streets for a sixth day of anti-government protests. “We are in touch with our mission in Cairo (Egyptian capital). We are watching what is happening there,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.

Several countries, including the United States and India, have already sent commercial airplanes to Cairo to bring back their citizens from Egypt.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st,  2011.