Flight with 176 stranded Pakistanis departs from Djibouti

A special flight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), carrying 176 stranded Pakistani nationals from Yemen, departed from Djibouti on Friday.

Prime minister's advisor on civil aviation Shujaat Azeem will receive the Pakistanis who are expected to arrive at the Islamabad airport later in the day, Dawn online reported.

The foreign office on Thursday confirmed the departure of the Pakistani nationals from Yemen's port of Aden on board a Chinese Navy ship for Djibouti.

The PIA flight left for Djibouti late on Thursday to bring the stranded nationals back to their country.

Meanwhile, around 175 Pakistanis are still awaiting evacuation from Yemen's port city of Mokallah.

A Pakistan Navy ship reached Mokallah port on Thursday, but the evacuation was delayed because of skirmishes which erupted around the port city following Wednesday night's jailbreak by Al Qaeda, in which some 300 inmates were freed.

Another group of 145 Pakistanis, unwilling to move to other cities for evacuation, is still in Yemen's capital city of Sanaa. However, authorities are planning to send a special flight to airlift them from Sanaa.

Around 3,000 Pakistanis lived in Yemen, with some 1,000 trying to leave the country, after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies launched airstrikes against the Shia Houthi militia.

The first flight sent to Yemen to facilitate the evacuation of stranded Pakistanis landed at the Karachi airport on Sunday night, with around 500 nationals on board.