Get our children from China within three-days, else we'll hold demonstration: Angry parents issue ultimatum to Pak govt

The fate of the stranded Pakistan nationals in China continues to be in question as country's minister refused to evacuate them from Wuhan city, the epicentre of coronavirus.

More than one thousand of the Pakistani students are stuck in China and Imran Khan government has failed to pay heed to their parents' demands.

Now the angry parents have given an ultimatum to the Imran Khan government. 

"If you fail to get our children repatriated within the next three days, we will hold demonstrations in front of your ministerial offices and the Embassy of China," the worried parents told the health minister Zafar Mirza and government advisor at the public meeting.

"It is very convenient for Zafar to appear on television and state that the government is acting in the larger interest of the country and the world; we are only concerned about the welfare of our children," one parent said.

More than 1,000 Pakistan students continue to remain stranded in Wuhan city as coronavirus killed over 2,000 people in China and infected over 74,000.

However, despite all countries making efforts to evacuate its citizens from China, Pakistan has failed to address the matter. 

Over 400 parents travelled from around the country to attend a meeting at a school in Islamabad and around 100 protested with placards outside after the meeting, blocking a nearby road. Protests in the larger cities of Lahore and Karachi were held last week.

Slogans like 'shame on the government', 'bring our kids back', were raised during the meeting Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi failed to attend after promising that he would.

In the meeting, parents confronted the country's health minister and government advisor briefed parents for the first time. 

Health Minister Zafar Mirza and Minister for Overseas Citizens Zulfiqar Bukhari told the parents that the students' welfare was better off in China and Pakistan did not have adequate facilities to quarantine them if they returned.

But hundreds interrupted the briefing, with some seizing microphones to say they did not want to listen to officials until their children were returned and dozens flooding the stage to crowd around the ministers.