Awan made these comments in an appearance on a TV talk show.
“We were almost off the UK’s Red List…you could say we were 90 percent off the list. But then, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif submitted fake medical reports for extension of his visa. When the UK authorities saw this, that a three-time prime minister of the country was blatantly lying, they decided to put Pakistan back on the Red List,” Awan said.
Awan’s remarks drew laughter from the anchor as well as other guests on the talk show. Awan himself broke out into a laugh.
“This is a very interesting argument,” the anchor said as she tried to contain her laughter.
“I salute this logic,” said Rana Tanveer Hussain. “This is fantastic!”
Hussain continued to laugh as the anchor said, “Rana sahib! You are laughing while we remain on the Red List due to fake medical reports! What are you doing?”
“We are responsible for everything!” Hussain replied, unable to contain his mirth.
However, a leaked letter written by Britain’s health minister on Sunday revealed that Pakistan was kept on the travel ban Red List because the true number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be much higher than reported across the country.
In the letter, Britain’s Health Minister Lord James Nicholas Bethell and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Innovation from the Department of Health and Social Care wrote that Pakistan’s testing and sequencing rates were low, which meant that was not possible to know the full genomic makeup of the current wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan.
A leaked letter written by Britain’s health minister on Sunday revealed that Pakistan was kept on the travel ban Red List because the true number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be much higher than reported across the country
They wrote in the letter that the true number of cases is likely to be much higher than reported. Lord Bethell said that there was “no reason other than Pakistan’s drive against the pandemic that Pakistan is on the red list.”