Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar questioned the British government’s decision to add Pakistan to its ‘red’ list’ of travel restrictions due to a increasing Covid-19 cases.
“Including Pakistan on the red list raises a legitimate question whether the choice of countries is based on science or foreign policy,” Umar said in a tweet.
A day earlier, the British government announced that Pakistan has been added to the country’s ‘red’ list’ of travel restrictions due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
“Red listing means that only UK, Irish nationals and those with residency rights in the UK will be allowed to travel to the UK if they have been in Pakistan in the 10 days before they arrive,” British High Commissioner to Pakistan Christian Turner had said in a video message.
He had added that the travellers would have to pay to stay in mandatory hotel quarantine for 10 days after arrival in the UK.
Minister Umar also shared a letter, written by a Member of the British Parliament for Bradford West – Naz Shah – which also questioned the ban. The MP asked whether the decision was led by any scientific data.
“According to recently available data for the last seven days France, Germany and India have a substantially higher number of infection per 100,000.”
The figures quoted by Shah are as follows: Pakistan: 13, UK: 54, Bangladeshi: 15, Germany: 137, Kenya: 17, India: 24 and France: 403,
“It must also be noted that as of today, the South African variant isn’t a concern in Pakistan whereas this isn’t the case for example in France and other countries. This begs the question why hasn’t the government extended the red list to France, Germany, and India?”
“The government doesn’t have a coherent strategy in dealing with the red list,” the MP stated. “The government isn’t serious about protecting the British public as its applying decisions led by politics, not data.”
MP Shah further said that contrary to what the UK government was saying, it is clearly not making decisions led by science or data.
“Further, it was knowingly and consciously discriminating against Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora community,” added the British MP.
Pakistan on Saturday recorded 4,723 new Covid-19 and 84 fatalities cases over the previous 24-hour period. India, on the other hand, recorded 81,466 new infections during the same time period, with the chief minister of India’s Maharashtra state warning of a full lockdown to curb coronavirus infections if people did not limit their movement, as the country hit a six-month high for daily cases.
