Daily Times

Sherry Rehman and Syed Zulfikar Bukhari accused each other on twitter for passing wrong information about the governments policy for the overseas returning Pakistanis.

The whole argument started on Saturday when PPP senator Sherry Rehman tweeted against allowing overseas Pakistanis to come back as it is making Pakistan “the new home, breeding ground for coronavirus.” Also sharing that 21 percent cases are from those coming back from abroad.

Syed Zulfikar Bukhari who is in special assistance to the Prime Minister on overseas Pakistanis replied to the tweet mentioning that information is incorrect and only 6 percent cases are from outside. Sherry Rehman is also being accused of “stigmatising helpless overseas Pakistanis returning home under such harsh conditions for petty political gain”.

To which Sherry Rehman responded, “Amazed that a crucial testing requirement at international borders is positioned as “stigmatising” the poor overseas Pakistanis left stranded for months without resources. This has become the PTI norm, not able to address facts on ground, so deflect narrative and attack.”

She also maintained, “I think it’s time to tell it like it is. PTI equates testing with stigma. That sums it up.”

Bukhari responded to that by sharing evidence-based information; he shared pictures of the returning Pakistanis giving samples for coronavirus testing. He acclaimed, “”Only service PPP has provided to nation consistently is lying to divert attention from their blunders. Time to stop that & concentrate on people of Sindh instead. And stop labelling overseas Pakistanis for covid spread!”

In response to this tweet Sherry Rehman tweeted “No misinformation. 1. Fix your messaging and your fact checking. 2. Hope very much that these r new pics (no dates) and u resume testing but the FACTs on the ground say otherwise. 3.We face serious surge, open herd culling in Pakistan so ur saying incoming cases no longer matter.”

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis also answer the Sherry Rehman Tweet by tweeting, “it is a fact that we are testing everyone landing at airports.”

To which Sherry Rehman responded, “ Really want to believe you. Please come to Senate and share evidence. But that is not what the Islamabad airport told us today, nor chairman overseas Pakistanis. Am told they also got instructions after my tweet to resume testing. If it was a Uturn for better am good with that.”

All this is most probably because of the anxiety caused by Pakistan reporting 100, 000 cases. The Federal Government gave permission to the overseas returning Pakistanis to return home, even though Sindh and Punjab resisted. This policy could have been a reason behind this raising number of Corona cases.