Bogus vaccine certificates

FIA has started to track down and arrest suspects following NCOC’s directives; suspects arrested from all major cities

While people continue to suffer from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, it is unfortunate that a few devious people have managed to take advantage of the situation by issuing fake vaccination certificates to citizens. The illegal practice prevalent across the country is not just hampering the inoculation drive but is also a major threat to people’s lives — especially considering the fact that the notorious Delta variant is rapidly spreading.

In a bid to put an end to this dangerous precedence and maintain law and order, the FIA has started to track down and arrest suspects following the NCOC’s directives. Recently, suspects have been arrested from all major cities. Surprisingly, they even include staffers of vaccination centres. These suspects will be summoned for further investigation after which legal action will be taken accordingly. Such a crackdown is and will continue to be necessary in order to undo the devastation these people have caused for the sake of earning a few quick bucks. Now that the FIA has the records and lists of many of those that have gotten fake certificates, they can proceed by either imposing restrictions on them or making it mandatory for them to get vaccinated. Strict punishments should be imposed, with names of culprits publicly broadcasted, in order to deter those who have yet not come under the radar. The FIA must not become complacent until we are sure that herd immunity is achieved and majority of the population is vaccinated. Even the vaccination drives are being conducted rather smoothly and the whole process is fairly easy. Hence, there can be no justification for eligible people to not get themselves vaccinated.

Citizens need to realise that the crisis is of a collective nature. In such unprecedented situation it becomes necessary to curtail individual liberty in order to protect the masses. Therefore, it becomes a given that everyone has to play their part by getting vaccinated and abiding by SOPs. Enough people have been vaccinated for people to move past the vaccine hoax. But some credulous people still chose to stay ignorant.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2021.

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