Pakistan and its Prime Minister Imran Khan leave no stone unturned to jump to the defence of their masters in the Chinese Communist Party as the cash-strapped country has no other option. Now, much to chagrin of Khan and Pakistan, the country will be defeating the China-made pandemic with India-made vaccines which the nation has procured through the United Nations led global alliance – GAVI which is aimed at ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines amongst the poor countries.
Pakistan which earlier chose Chinese vaccines over Indian vaccines, now has to face a major embarrassment yet again as the country is now forced to import India-made vaccines via an agreement with GAVI. 45 million doses of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield vaccine are expected to reach Pakistan through the global vaccine alliance in order to help Pakistan vaccinate its 220 million population.
Despite being the fifth most populous country in the world, Pakistan is nowhere close to vaccinating its 220 million people against COVID-19. Even as the country reels under the second wave of infections causing saturation of hospitalisations in the country, it visibly invested much more in its terror industry than the healthcare sector.
In the absence of GAVI, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, meanwhile, has only the main culprit of the pandemic to rely on – China, which has in no uncertain terms had earlier told the terror state to pick up the vaccines itself and at a time of its own choosing. This had visibly caught Islamabad off guard, which was hoping for unparalleled cooperation from its “all weather-ally” to combat the pandemic that originated in China itself. This is precisely why Pakistan egotistically never approached India for any help with regards to the vaccine. Despite China taking its vassal state and the health of people therein casually – Pakistan has no alternative and will have to succumb to Chinese tantrums.
While telling Pakistan to pick up the 500,000 vaccine doses itself, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Pakistani counterpart, “Send your aircraft and immediately airlift this drug.” These will all be doses of the vaccine manufactured by Chinese major Sinopharm – which has been a subject of global trepidation following botching up of efficacy and safety data relating to its vaccine candidates.
In contrast, India has supplied Nepal with 10 lakh free doses of vaccines, while Bangladesh has received 20 lakh free doses from New Delhi as a gesture of goodwill. China, meanwhile, has decided to supply a meagre 500,000 doses to Pakistan – which it continues to call a friend like no other. In totality, India is supplying over 1 crore vaccine doses to its neighbours and friends in the region for free.
It seems that there will be a lot of heartburn in Pakistan when its citizens will be inoculated with India made vaccines.