ISLAMABAD    -   China will allow phase-wise return of all Pakistani students who have been waiting all through the peak of Covid pandemic to resume their studies in the Chinese educational institutions.

On June 20, after more than two years of waiting, the first batch of Pakistani students boarded a flight to China.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs said 90 students had departed on a chartered flight to resume in-person studies on campus.

The statement said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had made a special request on behalf of the students to China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting a month earlier.

Diplomatic sources told The Nation that China had agreed to accept all students back but will allow return in phases.

“The whole process will be completed soon. China in principle had agreed to the return of all Pakistani students who had flown back from China amid the pandemic,” said a senior Pakistani diplomat.

He said Pakistani and the Chinese foreign ministries were in contact on the issue on a regular basis.

Another diplomat said the Chinese universities will enrol more Pakistani students in the months to come.

“New students will be enrolled for higher studies in China. The Chinese authorities are giving preference to the Pakistani students,” he added.

Besides Pakistan, offshore students from Bangladesh too will have a cause for celebration following an official announcement confirming their imminent return.

“In this light, good news I want to announce is that China has started allowing foreign students to return to China, and Bangladesh is in the first lot,” Li Jiming, China’s Ambassador to Bangladesh said in a video uploaded on the Embassy’s official Facebook page.

The Malaysian students have already begun organising their first major bid to return to China online. The student-run group Take Malaysian Students Back to China have so far tweeted a series of online campaigns to highlight their predicament.

Elsewhere, Indian students locked out of China have not been green-lighted for a return at the time of writing. The country’s National Medical Commission, however, is reportedly considering a one-time deal for medical students who had their studies cut off from China and Ukraine to take the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam, an option that was previously denied to them.

Under this new proposal, medical students who clear the exam would be considered for a two-year practical training in accordance with the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship regulations.