Malik hails formation of UN team to probe COVID-19 outbreak

ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister and senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ex-Senator Abdul Rehman Malik claimed that Secretary General United Nations ordered the inquiry into COVID-19 by constituting high powered committee headed by former prime minister of New Zealand Ms. Helen Clark who will assisted by 40 experts from UN and other countries.

“Let us see what would be the outcome of the investigations by biologists and doctors,” he said in an interview with The News. Rehman Malik said it is in the interest of humanity that this investigation has started to determine the zero patient and nature of this virus. He mentioned that he was the one in the whole world who requested in writing to probe the nature of this virus.

He appreciated the Secretary General United Nations for this great step against many odds. “The world will be looking forward to see the outcome of this investigation by the high powered team,” he said. Rehman Malik said soon after the outbreak of COVID-19, he wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 4th April 2020, to constitute a high-powered commission to probe if COVID-19 is a man-made or a naturally grown virus and to locate its origin. “I had suggested that the proposed commission on COVID-19 under the UN Convention on Biological Weapons, 1975 which might comprise virologists, scientists, professors, researchers, analysts, and experts in the fields of microbiology and virology,” he said. He said he had suggested that the commission should present its report to the UN Secretary-General in at the earliest, and its ‘terms of reference’ (ToR) should include recommendations to prevent future outbreak of such viruses, and international standards for coordination in case of a outbreak.

Rehman Malik said he had also written a letter to Bill Gates to assist the UN through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as he had given categorical statements about such a virus will kill numerous people while speaking at various international forums in 2015 & 2017.

He said in his letter, he had demanded seven ToRs for the UN Commission on COVID-19, which include accurate identification of the geo-location of the origin of COVID-19, identification of areas with zero patient, discovery as to why the behaviour, intensity, and fertility rate of COVID-19 varies from country to country; investigation whether COVID-19 is a man-made or naturally-grown virus and examination of the allegations of transportation of the virus from one place to other destinations in the world, as ‘biological warfare tactics.

He said Nobel Laureate and Distinguished Professor Tasuku Honjo of the Kyoto University Institute of Advanced Study, reportedly, has stated that all indicators of the COVID-19 suggest that it is a man-made virus. “He has even claimed that in case he is proven wrong, he will surrender his Nobel Prize and if he is not proven right then the government of Japan withdraws his award post his death,” he said.

Senator Rehman Malik said he warned people of Pakistan in March, this year that pattern of this virus shows that second wave would be bad and third will be bad to worse. ‘I had advised the government to increase beds, oxygen and all required medicines and other medical equipment but the government did not act on the advice,” he said.