Pak awaits ‘gift’ from China as India delivers vaccine supplies to key partner countries

By Ateet Sharma New Delhi, Jan 23 : Even as the Indian Covid-19 vaccines reached Seychelles and Myanmar on Friday afternoon, and Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives the day before, Pakistan is increasingly growing restless awaiting its 500,000 coronavirus vaccine dose ‘gift’ from iron brother China.
A desperate Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of the country, dialled his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday to discuss “Pakistan’s requirements” after reportedly being instructed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to increase interaction with Beijing “considering the sensitivity of the situation”.
“I want to give the nation the good news that China has promised to immediately provide 500,000 doses of vaccine to Pakistan by January 31,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn after the phone call.
“They (China) have said you can send your airplane and immediately airlift this drug,” he added.
Qureshi tweeted that Pakistan has approved emergency use authorisation of Chinese vaccine SinoPharm developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm.
While Qureshi insisted that the vaccines will be delivered by January 31, China today didn’t announce the exact date of the delivery.