Islamabad: Pakistan’s top body spearheading the fight against the pandemic has ordered an investigation into claims about a minister’s family jumping the COVID-19 vaccine queue.
Federal Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema faced severe public criticism after video clips on social media showed his family members getting vaccinated at home. Cheema, however, denied using political influence and said that the family was part of a clinical trial conducted by the University of Health Sciences (UHS).
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) decided to first inquire about the city where the family members of the minister were vaccinated so that the relevant organisations can take action, said Minister Asad Umar.
Health officials have deplored the queue jumping practice as many vulnerable people in Pakistan are still waiting for their turn to get the vaccine at a time when the third wave of coronavirus has hit the country hard.
The videos were posted on an Instagram story with the caption “happy vaccine day” and showed several people waiting as a nurse administered the vaccine one by one. Former model and TV actress Iffat Omar was also seen in one of the videos. The videos were first shared on an Instagram account named Nawal Tariq Cheema and it is no longer active.
Reaction on social media
The video of vaccine queue jumping in Pakistan triggered a massive outcry on social media where people questioned the vaccination process in a country with a limited stock of coronavirus vaccines.
“First you jump the vaccination queue using your political connections, then brag about it on social media” commented TV anchor Maria Memon, saying that there are people with low immunity diseases who desperately want to get the jab.
“I expect and demand an apology from Minister Cheema. First, he along with his family did an immoral thing, and then he had the audacity to lie about it calling it a trial shot,” Mehr Tarar, Gulf News columnist, wrote on Twitter.
