ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari has slammed the UK government for retaining Pakistan on the Red List of countries facing travel restrictions, calling the measure ‘ridiculous’.
Taking to Twitter today (Monday), the minister shared a report from a private newspaper, according to which the UK cited the lack of vaccination and testing data as the reason for retaining Pakistan on the list.
“Ridiculous! the UK government, dominated by Indophiles and despite globally documented India’s continuing disastrous handling of the COVID pandemic, moved India to the amber list but keeps Pakistan on the red list; then under pressure from opposition MPs gives feeble excuse [that] Pakistan didn’t share data,” she added.
Fact is UK govt never asked for data but it is publicly available as NCOC has the most centralised & daily updated data bases anywhere & data shared with UK HC. Earlier UK govt had given another excuse – that more Pak passengers than Indians tested positive! Shifting goalposts!
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 9, 2021
She further defended her stance, saying British authorities never asked for the data as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has “the most centralised and daily updated data bases anywhere and data shared with UK HC”.
She criticised the UK government for ‘shifting goalposts’, noting that it had earlier said Pakistan had been placed on the Red List because more passengers from Pakistan compared to India were testing positive for COVID-19.
According to the report, British MPs of Pakistani-origin held a virtual meeting with Planning Minister Asad Umar and Special Assistant Dr Faisal Sultan on Friday. During the meeting, the issue of whether or not Islamabad had provided data to the British government was discussed.
“According to the MPs, Umar told them that the data was publicly available on the NCOC forums, including Twitter and YouTube, and the UK authorities could have accessed it,” the report said.
Had a session with some UK MP’s regarding continuation of Pakistan on the red list. Shared data regarding covid disease surveillance and explained Pak strategy for covid response. Will engage with UK govt to try and ensure that red list decisions are based on science not politics pic.twitter.com/yn1qgHmMyW
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) August 7, 2021
