wfn.org | Adventist Expatriate Personnel Unable To Return Home

["Christian B. Schäffler" <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

October 22, 1999
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland

Adventist Expatriate Personnel Unable To Return Home from 
Pakistan

St. Albans, Herts., U.K. (ANR/APD) The Government of Nawaz 
Sharief of Pakistan was overthrown in a military coup on October 
12, bringing chaos to a country which is now a nuclear state.

"We have been in touch with our people in Pakistan and have 
been following the news closely," reports Dr Reinder Bruinsma, 
secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-
European Division (TED). "We have contacted the State 
Department in Washington, DC, and the overall feeling is that 
expatriate personnel in Pakistan are safe and that for the present 
time there is no reason to worry, but we will continue to monitor 
the situation very carefully."

Commenting on the situation, Dr Bertil Wiklander, TED president, 
says: "We are glad to hear the news that no one has been hurt 
in the current situation in Pakistan.  But we wish everybody to 
pray for our brothers and sisters over there that the situation 
between India and Pakistan will continue to remain peaceful, and 
that the Government will create stability and order in the 
country.  We also wish to mention that we have several people 
from the TED office present in Pakistan right now who have 
problems getting their flights back.  I am thinking particularly of 
our education director, Orville Woolford and our auditors."

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Pakistan has a membership 
of 6,434 and operates several institutions including the Pakistan 
Adventist Seminary in Farooqabad Mandi, and the Karachi 
Adventist Hospital.