Stranded Pakistanis - And the PTI administration

While Pakistani students in coronavirus-stricken Wuhan issued frantic calls for repatriation, the PTI government invented excuses to dodge its responsibility. On Thursday, Dr Zafar Mirza, SAPM on National Health Services said the government has decided not to repatriate them because in case they were brought back, the epidemic which had been contained by the Chinese government to Wuhan would “spread all over the world like wildfire”. He further maintained that so far China had not allowed evacuation of people from Wuhan. He also claimed that China was the only country where this disease could be successfully diagnosed. A similar stand was taken by the Foreign Office.

Each one of these claims is against the facts. On Tuesday, the European Union announced that it would co-finance air travel to bring Europeans home from Wuhan, with the first aircraft leaving France on Wednesday morning to collect around 250 French citizens. A plane carrying 206 Japanese nationals from Wuhan landed in Tokyo on Wednesday. The same day, Australia and the UK announced that their citizens repatriated from Wuhan were to be quarantined for up to two weeks. On Saturday India evacuated 324 of its nationals from Wuhan. No country talked about China having disallowed foreigners or the WHO issuing advice in this respect or the disease spreading worldwide by repatriation. For that matter, the coronavirus was not confined to Wuhan alone.

The stand taken by the government was in fact yet another example of its lack of competence to deal with a crisis-like situation. Bringing back any number of citizens would test the government’s ability to undertake a complex exercise including sending of special planes with doctors to Wuhan, providing screening facilities at Pakistani airports, setting up isolation wards in hospitals as well as quarantine arrangements to keep those brought from China with doctors and related staff. What’s more, it would require funds.

On Friday PTI Senator Shibli Faraz told the Upper House that if the situation changed the government would evacuate the Pakistani students on this basis. The next day he was contradicter by Dr Mirza, who said the government had decided to stay firm on its earlier decision against repatriation. This sends the message that the PTI administration has turned into a Tower of Babel lacking unity of views on crucial issues.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/02/01/stranded-pakistanis/