A total of 225 Pakistani passengers who have been stuck in Madinah since Wednesday, were finally given accommodation and meals on Friday, and promised they would get a flight to Lahore in the next 24 to 48 hours. On Saturday night they were still waiting for a flight home.

The passengers, who were scheduled to fly from Madinah on Wednesday April 1 at around 9:05 p.m. via Riyadh to Lahore, saw their flight SV734 canceled because of the sandstorm in the capital city.

It is then that they claimed things went wrong. Ahmed Ali Raza, a passenger, told Arab News that they were promised a flight on the morning of Thursday April 2.

“We sat at the airport the entire night without accommodation and food waiting for the flight, but were then informed that this flight had also been canceled,” he said.

Raza claimed that officials would not provide them with hotel accommodation even though, according to the rules, they should have been given this benefit after a delay of more than six hours.

“Later we were told that would take us to Riyadh on a domestic flight but nothing happened.” He claimed that airport officials were rude and told them to shut up when they complained about the situation and pointed out that other passengers had left on rescheduled flights.

Raza said they finally contacted the Pakistan Consulate for help. “If it was not for the consulate we would have not been given hotel accommodation and food today (Friday)."