The British court said the government had made the “right decision” by placing Pakistan on the Red List

London: The British High Court ruled that Pakistan cannot be removed from the red list of travel bans before the British government makes a decision on this.

Judge Linden of the High Court of London ruled that Pakistanis cannot be removed from the red list because the British government is responsible for responding to the pandemic to save lives and therefore took the right steps.

The challenge of judicial review against the Minister of Health and Social Care was initiated by Barrister Zahab Jamali in the High Court on behalf of three British and Pakistani nationals, Omer Khalid, Yasir Wahab and Faisal Saeed. They were affected by the earlier decision of the British government. Pakistan implements a travel ban.

The legal challenge is based on the argument that despite the relatively high number of infections and related to what is now called the Delta variant, India was not added to this list until April 23, 2021, but Pakistan was added to the list On April 9, the infection rate was the lowest at that time.

In the course of court proceedings, the British government admitted that it believed the figures and positions related to genome sequence data, and it was inaccurate to include Pakistan on the list. It also accepted that the genome sequence numbers submitted by the three claimants were correct. Pakistan also submitted its genome sequence in 2021, but when it included Pakistan on the Red List, the government assessed that Pakistan had not submitted its genome sequence since December 2020. The British government acknowledged this fact in the proceedings.

It is reported that the government relies on three or four numbers to determine which countries should be included in the red list, but it is now clear that at least one of them is actually incorrect. The government has not released any detailed data to prove the rationality of these figures.

Barrister Zahab Jamali said that the claimant is now challenging the appeals court’s decision on genome sequencing.

Barrister Rashed Ahmed initiated another case challenging the British government’s decision to put Pakistan on the red list, and he said his case will continue.

He said: “The British government must answer why Pakistan was included in the red list, and at the same time remain silent on the country that was ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. We continue to emphasize that Pakistanis were discriminated against, and the British government acted with bad intentions at the time. The government It must be considered to compensate those who have suffered due to their actions.”

The data submitted to the court showed that compared with other countries such as India, Bangladesh, Brazil, the United States, Spain, Germany and France, on April 2, 2021, Pakistan and Kenya had relatively low risks. The data shows that for every 100,000 people, Pakistan ranks second from the bottom among the listed countries, second only to Kenya. The 3,070 figure compares with 34,065 in Germany, 70,397 in Spain, 71,929 in France, 76,613 in Belgium and 94,393 in the United States-all of which are not on the red list.

The data provided to the court shows that India provides an interesting comparison chart: It has more than doubled the number of cases per 100,000 people (8,915), but it was not included in the travel ban list until April 23, which is more than Pakistan’s. Much later.