Pakistan: National airline halts international flights

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI (AA) - Pakistan's national airlines has suspended its international operations for a week amid a rising number of coronavirus cases in the country, an official said.

The flight ban starting Saturday evening will run through March 28, Abdullah Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), told reporters.

The country's airspace, however, will remain open for foreign airlines, most of which have already suspended their service to Pakistan.

The move, Khan said, followed government measures aimed at containing coronavirus cases, which jumped to
510 with three confirmed deaths.

On Twitter late Friday, Taimur Khan Jhagra, health minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa privince, confirmed a fourth death in the Dera Ismail khan district.

The federal government did not verify Jhagra's claim.

The railways have already announced the suspension of 12 trains to the southern Sindh and southwestern Balochistan provinces – the two worst hit by coronavirus – starting Sunday.