LONDON: High Commissioner Moazzam Ahmad Khan has said Pakistan respects the British government’s sovereign decision to keep the country on the Red List, but the UK has adopted a wrong approach to assess Pakistan, ignoring science and data.
Addressing a press conference here, Moazzam Ahmad Khan told Pakistani media that the Pakistan authorities shared data on a weekly basis with the UK authorities and that the UK government ignored it while deciding to keep Pakistan in the Red List. “I am optimistic that Pakistan will Inshallah come out of the Red List on 25th of August,” said the high commissioner.
The envoy spoke after mounting criticism from Pakistani community that Pakistan did not launch a robust diplomatic effort to get out of the Red List while India and several countries managed to get out – and after The News reported quoting the UK government sources and five British Pakistani MPs that Pakistan did not provide data to the UK government related to the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari slammed the UK government for keeping Pakistan on its Red List of countries facing travel restrictions, saying that the UK never asked Pakistan for data related to the country’s coronavirus situation to review their decision. But Moazzam Ahmad Khan said that Pakistan gave weekly data to the UK government and that the decision to keep Pakistan on the Red List was “shocking” for the high commissioner.
“There is a general impression that Pakistan didn’t provide the required information to the UK. We reject that impression. Throughout, Pakistan engaged with the UK government at the highest end and the working level. The High Commission remained engaged with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. There was no communication breakdown. We have been sharing the latest data on a weekly basis,” he said. Moazzam Ahmad Khan said: “We have reservations and concerns. We respect the UK’s sovereign decision on the matters of safety and security as it’s their sovereign right but we understand that the system that has been adopted to assess Pakistan doesn’t present the true and factual situation of Pakistan. That needs to be corrected. We have requested the UK government that both sides should deal on a technical basis so that the decision should be made on the basis of science and data.”
He added: “We believe that the UK’s assessment system needs to be corrected and improved. We have reservations and concerns about it but it’s just us, there are concerns about this system within this country that this is not amongst the best systems to assess a country’s situation. Our data is available on the NCOC sites and can be accessed easily.”
The high commissioner said that he did not want to comment on the meeting between Asad Umar, Faisal Sultan and eight British Pakistani MPs, but he said that the MPs told the meeting that “Pakistan was in safe hands”.
The envoy said that he had met British PM Boris Johnson at the Military Academy Sandhurst where he raised the issue of Pakistan Red Listing. The envoy quoted the UK Premier as saying that he will look into the matter but provided no assurance. “I told PM Boris Johnson that the Pakistan community is frustrated and disappointed at the decision to keep Pakistan in the Red List.”
The News had reported on Monday a senior UK minister as claiming that the Pakistan authorities did not share with them the Covid-19 data on vaccination and testing and that is the reason why Pakistan remains on the travel ban Red List – while India and several other countries have been moved out of the ban list into the Amber category.
The Department for Transport explained that the traffic light system categories countries/territories based on risk to protect public health in the UK and the vaccine rollout from variants of Covid-19. “Key factors in the JBC risk assessment of each country/territory include: genomic surveillance capability, Covid-19 transmission risk and variant of Concern transmission risk.”