Daily Times

Retaining Pakistan on the travel red list by Britain, first, evoked a strong reaction and disappointment on the part of government officials who described the decision based on ‘politics and discrimination’ as India, where the Covid-19 situation is far serious was removed from it and promoted to ‘amber’ list, the medium-risk countries.

Now Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK Moazzam Ahmad Khan has come up with a statement expressing optimism that the British government will remove Pakistan from its red list in the upcoming travel update on August 26. The optimism of the high commissioner makes it quite obvious that there is a complete disconnect between those sitting in the London High Commission and those in Pakistan. If it has not been so, our government officials would not have immediately reacted to the British government’s decision, rather waited for the output of the high commission. In fact, there should have been a strong coordination and collaboration between Pakistan High Commission in London and the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) in Islamabad soon after Pakistan was placed on the red list back in April in order to discuss the way forward and chalk out a coherent strategy to get Pakistan out of the challenge.

As regards the high commissioner’s optimism is concerned, Moazzam Ali Khan did not elaborate further as to what has led him to reach this conclusion. The question is whether British government has changed its earlier position in which it voiced concerns over the current trajectory of pandemic in Pakistan and the low testing rates.

Instead of doing the guess work, it would have been better for our high commission in London to sit with the British authorities to identify the requirements that need to be fulfilled to come out of the red list. The NCOC, which has so far successfully led the national drive against Covid-19 by developing synergies with the federating units and evolving a scientific mechanism for reliable data, has a greater role to play to properly assist the high commission to effectively plead Pakistan’s case with the UK, whose concerns and doubts about NCOC’s data should be cleared with logic and rationale.

One may smell politics in British government’s decision probably to put pressure on Pakistan vis-à-vis Afghan situation and to appease the Americans, but it is really heartening to see the way British MPs of Pakistani origin have come up in support of Pakistan and strongly criticized their government for keeping the country on red list. It will not be wrong to say that these MPs are more aware of Covid-19 situation in Pakistan because they pleaded Pakistan’s case with facts and figures when they questioned as to why Pakistan is on the red list when its seven-day infection is 14 per 100,000 people compared to India’s 20 per 100,000.

Our high commission should maintain close contacts with these MPs as well as other pro-Pakistan elements as their pressure will definitely help achieve the ultimate objective. The dirty politics should not dictate decisions regarding the pandemic. It will rather be better for the British government to consider the problems of the stranded families in Pakistan, especially the children who are missing out on essential schooling. Most of these families, whose livelihoods were also affected by the pandemic, cannot afford hotel charges for the 10-day mandatory quarantine in hotels. It would not cause any harm but only provide relief to the stranded families if the British authorities allow them to spend quarantine period in their homes rather than the hotels. For this, the British authorities should move Pakistan from red to amber. For green status, though, the British authorities may wait till Pakistan fulfills all their requirements.