The petitioner failed to come up with any logical answer
A Pakistani court has imposed a fine of Rs 200,000 (£900) on a petitioner for claiming that Covid-19 does not exist.
The petitioner, Azhar Abbas alleged that the pandemic is an international conspiracy and hence the government should not procure vaccines.
The Lahore High Court on December 22, 2020, imposed the fine on Abbas and warned him against filing such frivolous petitions in the future.
Abbas, an air-conditioner mechanic, contended before the court that Covid-19 does not infect people by shaking hands.
He said the symptoms of Covid-19 already existed for decades and they were not fatal.
LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan repeatedly asked Abbas to present what “medical” evidence he had to prove that Covid-19 was not real.
The petitioner failed to come up with any logical answer and tried to explain that it was an “international conspiracy.”
He also pleaded to the court to stop the Pakistani government from procuring Covid-19 vaccine.
The Chief Justice dismissed the petition and imposed a fine of Rs 200,000 on the petitioner.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has stated it is in close and consistent contact with leading Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to acquire doses of the vaccine.
On December 23, 2020, Pakistan’s National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced that the government was comparing the results of phase-3 trials of a lot of possible vaccines.
Government officials stated:
“These steps will lead to a final decision about the early availability of the vaccine in Pakistan.”
Trails of a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine are currently ongoing in Pakistan.
University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor and Scientific Task Force on Covid-19, member Dr Javed Akram disclosed:
“15,000 people, which is 80 per cent of the total volunteers in the phase-3 trials have been administered Chinese vaccine.
“We are hopeful that the trials would end in December 2020.”
The clinical trial of the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan began in September 2020.
The vaccine is ribonucleic acid-based and will generate antibodies against the spikes as a result of which the virus will not be able to attach itself to the lungs.
Dr Akram added:
“Some of the volunteers who were administered Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine were hospitalised, not a single incident has occurred with the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan.
“Once the trial is completed, the process of vaccine registration will start.
“We will not waste a single minute as the country is losing almost 100 people’s lives daily because of the pandemic.”
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