Pakistan High Commissioner to Canada Raza Bashir Tarar has told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that Canada's suspension of flights from Pakistan by clubbing it with a much larger neighbour with a massively higher volume of corona virus positive cases, is disproportionate, and hoped flights would resume between the two countries after the 30-day period to facilitate families separated by the ban, says a press release received here today from Canada.
Appearing in CBC's popular political show Power and Politics, Raza Bashir Tarar said that it was Canada’s sovereign right to take any measures it deemed fit to fight the spread of COVID-19 but the figures spoke for themselves as in Pakistan the Coronavirus positive cases were already declining due to immediate measures adopted by the government.
He pointed out that the non-Canadians were already not allowed to enter Canada even before the announcement of the ban, people who would have been inconvenienced were essentially the Canadians of Pakistani extraction who had to face considerable hardships due to the ban. He also mentioned that passengers arriving in Canada were required to go for COVID-19 tests at the airports and were required to undergo mandatory quarantine.
To a question as to whether Pakistan would like to have any assistance from Canada or other countries as India had done to fight COVID-19 recently, the High Commissioner said Pakistan would welcome any assistance and noted that Canada had already contributed CAD 850,000 to the World Health Organization (WHO) to fight COVID on Pakistan’s request and Pakistan valued its relationship with Canada.
