Chak, Dish

A letter dated April 21, 2020, arrived at the desk of Major General Aamir Ikram, executive director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), a 40-year-old vaccine research and manufacturing facility located in Chak Shezad in Islamabad.The letter was signed by Li Can, the General Manager of China's leading medical and healthcare group.It called for collaboration between China's SINOPHARMA and NIH, as well as proposed the two to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in order to conduct Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials on recruited (Pakist) participants at the facility at the NIH.SINOPHARMA is an immunisation research institution under the direct leadership of the State -Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.In anticipation that the clinical trials would be successful, SINOPHARMA promises 'the subsequent introduction of the vaccine in Pakistan,' the letter read.The letter also discussed a highly sophisticated clinical experiment, for which both the facility at NIH and the infrastructure of Pakistan's health system can prove highly inadequate-- a worrisome issue-- especially when it suggested that Phase I and Phase II for the clinical trials would be combined.Phase one is when a drug is introduced to the smaller section of the population. In light of the immunological and toxic results obtained from Phase I, which can take several months, Phase II is then introduced involving a healthier and a much larger group of population that is no less than a few hundred.Clinical trials for vaccines begin with an average of 15 people called Phase Zero and which commences before Phase I. I wonder why the results of clinical trials of Phase zero have not yet been made available to scientists all over the world. A vaccine for COVID 19 is only a short time goal as long as all nation-states collaborate with each other by sharing their clinical trial results.One can only guess that Phase Zero conducted earlier in China have revealed toxic results that were too overwhelming to be risked with the launch of Phase two at home. Hence they decided to launch further clinical trials in a 'friendly' country. Who could be 'friendlier' to China than 'brotherly' Pakistan?A total of more than $100 billion have been lend so far to the 'brotherly' neighbour making communist China the biggest lender to the Islamic republic of Pakistan. This debt is 1/5th of the Pakistan's total debt. It has to be repaid by 2024. Yet, attempts to help Pakistan economy stay keep afloat will need a lot more than the amount she has taken from China. The manner in which the serpent of Chinese finance capital has silently slithered its way and encroached on Pakist fiscal assets is now turning ugly.It is demanding that the people of Pakistan be used as Guiney pigs for the most dangerous clinical trials in recent history.The gist of this letter is as follows: Firstly, that China considers Pakist people lesser human beings than the Chinese themselves, and secondly, that Pakistan is being run by a clique of incompetent military generals who just do not care about the well being of the people of Pakistan and who have capitulated to the inhuman demand of SINOPHARMA.It is beyond my belief that such a vital letter could have arrived in Islamabad unless it had secure approval of the highest governing body of that country. Such letters do not travel out of China unless an approval from the Chinese elite, which run the day-to-day affairs of the ruling Communist Party of China, and the acting Chinese primer is obtained.To even think of permitting China to use Pakist people as Guiney pigs for its clinical trials is a total let-down of the claims of respect and dignity that Imran Khan promised to earn the people of Pakistan. A powerless Prime minster, Imran Khan and a corrupt Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, General Qamar Jawed Bajwa will soon hand over their people as Guiney pigs for clinical trials run in Islamabad by the Chinese authorities. Does Pakistan has a choice?Beggars cannot be choosers. Imran Khan has proved to be one consistently stubborn beggar trotting the globe in search of easy loans and credits to salvage the shipwreck of Pakistan economy. As Imran Khan ponders on the technicalities of the aforementioned clinical trial he should contemplate, How Imran Khan sold Pakist citizens to a Chinese Laboratory, would not look noble on a posthumous resume.(Disclaimer: The views and ideas expressed in this Opinion Column are those of the author, Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza who is a human rights activist from PoK, living in exile in the United Kingdom. , in any way, is not responsible/ liable for the views or ideas expressed by the author)( With inputs from ANI )

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