British Govt Slammed For Not Removing Pakistan From ‘red-list’

Yasmin Qureshi and Naz Shah have criticized British government that why not Pakistan when all other states including India, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain have been removed from the red-list.

LONDON: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-August 5^th, 2021) British lawmakers Yasmin Qureshi and Naz Shah have slammed the British government for not removing Pakistan from the red list.

Both the lawmakers said that India, Qatar and many other countries which were on the red list were removed from it but Pakistan was kept there on the red list. The British government also removed UAE and Bahrain from the list.

Yasmin Qureshi and Naz Shah said that Indian reported Delta variant and around 40,000 cases per day. They were of the view that coronavirus rates in Pakistan were averaging around 4,500 per day, around five times lower than the United Kingdom but in India, where the delta variant emerged and precipitated Britain’s third wave, cases are at around 40,000 per day.

They said that Pakistan did relatively well compared to its neighbours and managed to do this whilst avoiding a lockdown.

Yasmin Qureshi said: “I am dismayed at the government’s decision to keep Pakistan on the travel red list whilst removing other countries in the middle East and South Asia region. Pakistan has no variant of concern reported and cases remain relatively low when compared with India and the UK yet is punished unnecessarily,”.

She said: “These changes point to one thing and one thing only – government politicking. The government has opted to remove India now to best prepare them for trade negotiations and is not based on data nor science.”

She also said, “These travel restrictions are wreaking havoc with people across the United Kingdom. The Pakistani diaspora totals around 1.1mn in the UK and I have been inundated with correspondence which details students unable to access their courses because of punitive and extortionate quarantine costs and children unable to see their often sick parents and grandparents.”

Naz Shah who is Labour MP for Bradford Wes, said, “The last time this govt favoured political choices rather than science and risked our nation’s Covid efforts, it failed to place India on the Red list.”

“That led to the Delta Variant becoming the most prominent Covid variant in the UK. Whilst families have been forced away from loved ones for months, it is unacceptable for decisions to be made in such ways,” she concluded.