Out of red list

Britain has responded to reason by lifting the ban on travellers from Pakistan after a hiatus of almost five months. Now people vaccinated under international protocol are free to visit the UK and transit through it. While realising this change of policy — as London had placed Pakistan in the Red List, owing to suspicions over the testing and vaccinating profile of Covid-19 patients — a lot of goodwill and diplomacy has come into play. Pakistan, which has a better pandemic dealing record, had earnestly pleaded with British authorities to focus on individual travellers’ vaccination record, rather than generalising it on unfounded statistics. It is a welcome development that the plea got an attentive hearing, and Pakistanis are off the hook.

British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, while announcing a new policy, said that fully vaccinated travellers from non-Red list countries can simply board the flight; and also informed that PCR test is being replaced with a cheaper lateral flow. The most important decision was scrapping of the ‘traffic light’ system, wherein Britain relied on a so-called barometer evaluation, which was criticised for its inherent discrepancies. It has come as a sigh of relief for eight countries and territories. Likewise, passengers considered unvaccinated may be able to end quarantine early if they pay for a private Covid-19 test through the Test to Release scheme. It is a leap forward approach keeping in view the aspect that the pestering pandemic is a new-norm, and one has to live with it.

While more than 225,000 Pakistanis hold a British passport, apart from British citizens of Pakistani descent, this undoing of the ban is highly appreciated. This is why it necessitated PM Imran Khan to personally speak to his counterpart, and apprise him of its adverse impact. While recognising the efforts of Pakistan government officials, here is a word of thanks for British authorities who upheld participatory democratic values by introspecting it in all sincerity. One hopes this upsurge in travel and tourism will help browbeat recessionary tendencies.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2021.

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