ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Saturday questioned the United Kingdom’s decision to place Pakistan on a so-called red list of countries and banning entry to its people unless they hold dual citizenship of Britain or Ireland.
London on Friday banned international arrivals from four more countries — Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Philippines — in view of concerns over new virus variants but opted against including European nations that are facing a resurgence of the virus.
“Every country has a right to take decisions to safeguard the health of their citizens,” Umar said in a tweet.
Every country has a right to take decisions to safeguard the health of their citizens. However, the recent decision by UK govt to add some countries including Pakistan on the red list raises a legitimate question whether choice of countries is based on science or foreign policy pic.twitter.com/BAzaW1Lc8l
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) April 3, 2021
“However, the recent decision by the UK government to add some countries, including Pakistan, on the ‘red list’ raises a legitimate question whether the choice of countries is based on science or foreign policy.”
While London claims the decision was based on advice from public health experts and scientific data, no European nations are placed on the red list, even though much of Europe is witnessing a resurgence of the virus that has prompted many countries to reimpose lockdown restrictions.
Health experts say the surge is being driven by virus variants, including the one first identified in Britain, that are sweeping the continent.
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced questions in recent days as to why France, which is suffering one of the worst outbreaks in Europe, is not on the list. Yet putting France on the red list could have serious implications for trade flows in and out of the UK, given its reliance on traffic from cross-Channel ports.
BRITISH MP QUESTIONS MOVE:
Through his tweet, Umar also shared a letter written by Naz Shah, MP from Bradford West and Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on March 30, prior to restrictions being announced.
“I have a large Pakistani diaspora within my constituency which is why I am writing to simply ask, what scientific data is any decision being led by,” Shah asked in the letter.
She observed that according to recently available data, France, Germany, and India had substantially higher numbers of infections per 100,000.
“It must also be noted that 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?”
Shah declared London did not have a coherent strategy for dealing with the red list and was applying decisions led by politics and not data.
“Contrary to what the government is saying, it is clearly not making decisions fed by science/data. Further, it is knowingly and consciously discriminating against Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora community,” Shah said.
“I’ve been raising this for weeks and still no answers from Matt Hancock or Dominic Raab,” she said in a separate tweet.
Why aren’t countries which have significant more cases, including the South African variant, not on the red list too? Why #Pakistan and not France which has 10 times more cases. I’ve been raising this for weeks and still no answers from @MattHancock or @DominicRaab ? https://t.co/jsq8VsBfU1 pic.twitter.com/fn39l3V6Z1
— Naz Shah MP 💙 (@NazShahBfd) April 2, 2021
Childish immature whining as usual. UK has grounded Pakistanis due to their bad behavioir. And Like child Pakistanis are crying and whining. And the world is just laughing and enjoying at their drama. Grow up guys. Do not embarrass us.
Nobody wants Islamic beggars in their country. Its not politics, its common sense jihadi. Well madrassah and common sense don’t go together…😆