ISLAMABAD: Acknowledging Pakistan’s central initiative of developing a “humanitarian air bridge” Executive director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley said Pakistan played a vital role in speedy and safety evacuation of troops and others from Afghanistan.
Beside establishing a humanitarian air bridge, Pakistan also repaired damaged planes returning from Kabul, which supported airlines to carry on evacuation process without facing difficulties.
The WFP chief today shared a video on his Twitter account from Islamabad airport in which he appreciated role of Pakistan as far as evacuation of troops, foreigners, and their families was concerned.
“Our damaged planes from Kabul have been repaired, and the WFP is now ready to establish a humanitarian air bridge between Islamabad-Kabul and other destinations in Afghanistan,” Beasley wrote.
“This will allow us to scale up to meet the needs of the Afghan people,” he said.
Beasley said the Pakistan government “really helped” the WFP with overhauling and repairing the planes damaged in Kabul so that they could be put back in service.
Pointing to a passenger plane, he said: “We are about to do a test flight from Islamabad to Kabul that will be an air bridge, which hopefully goes well.”
He said the WFP was helping to evacuate passengers, UN personnel, and other humanitarian workers from Afghanistan.
“With all the devastation inside Afghanistan, we want to do what we can to bring life back to normal and give hope to people in desperation right now,” he said.
WFP chief calls on premier
The WFP executive director also called on Prime Minister Imran Khan later in the day and expressed gratitude for Pakistan’s role in facilitating the work of the UN agency in providing food assistance to people in Afghanistan.
