-Miscreants behind some students calling for immediate evacuation from China
– Saboteurs provoking stranded students, parents to protest for quick evacuations
-Students, parents being trapped through offers of admissions to Western universities
-10 to 15 student found creating trouble, discouraging others
-Overwhelming majority of Pakistani students reposed trust in steps taken by Chinese, Pakistani officials
-Majority of the Pakistani students satisfied with the quarantine, preventive measures
-Pakistan Embassy playing a highly active role, reaching out to students
-Ambassador Hashmi’s Special Task Force deployed in Wuhan for constant coordination
-Task Force confirms things returning to normal in Wuhan
-The Daily Mail finds Pakistani students being well looked after with their food, basic amenities
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: A mysterious group of individuals, belonging to certain political factions and having previous associations with some banned International NGOs have been found provoking the parents of the Pakistani students, stranded in Chinese province of Hubei, these mysterious elements have also established direct contact with these students through Wechat and Whatsapp and are also pushing them hard to protest for evacuation, reveal the investigations of The Daily Mail’s Investigation Cell.
These investigations indicate that there are apparently two sympathizer groups, dealing with the parents and students separately. One group is insisting the parents to stage protests for pressurizing the government of Pakistan while other convincing stranded students back in China, to keep urging their parents to come to streets for their quick evacuation from China, convincing them that they could get scholarship and sponsored admissions to US and British universities if they manage to leave China at the earliest by creating a strong pressure on both Chinese and Pakistani authorities.
Talking to The Daily Mail, some Beijing-based Pakistani students confirmed that they have also got such calls from different people from Pakistan who pretended to be parents of some students, stranded in Hubei province and told them to speak out for their fellow colleagues and also offered them that if their voice raising would earn any ire for the Chinese university administrations or the local authorities, they would easily be readmitted to certain universities in the US with full sponsorships by those universities and in regard the names of a few US and UK based universities were also given to them but they politely refused and instead told these callers that the Pakistani students were very safe in China and that both Chinese authorities and Pakistani Embassy were very well looking after them. These students also expressed that they were very much disturbed to see negative reports about the situation there in China, being narrated by certain Western media outlets as it was putting their families back in Pakistan in acute panic, trauma and they were finding it very hard to convince their families about the levels of safety in China and about the efforts of Chinese, Pakistani authorities in this regard.
Overwhelming majority of Pakistani students have reposed trust in steps taken by Chinese government and Embassy of Pakistan by giving a satisfactory feedback to Embassy while some students have pressed for more measures to facilitate them. Most of Pakistani students exhibited immense discipline, courage and patience in the face of extremely rigid quarantine requirements and must be admired and encouraged. However, two or three small groups of students seem to be more affected and vulnerable to cope with the pressure of the quarantine situation and are making noise for repatriation.
Talking to The Daily Mail, Inaam Ullah, a Pakistani student at Henan University of Technology and Haseeb Hayat, having his education at Communication University of China said that they were very much impressed by the joint efforts of Pakistan Embassy and Chinese authorities in this critical moment and the way both Chinese and Pakistani officials were concerned about the safety and facilities to Pakistani students in China. “I am very much safe here and very positive that Chinese officials will beat the epidemic. I was thinking that if I leave for Pakistan and later I am found infected with virus, how big threat would I become, not only for my family but also for the entire area and eventually for the entire country. I belong to Buner district of KP Province which is a rather deserted and isolated area, how can I get treatment for Coronavirus infection over there where treatment of normal diseases and infections become an uphill task at times’, asserted Inaam Ullah.
Haseeb Hayat, belonging to Peshawar city of KP province also highly appreciated the way Pakistani Embassy officials and Chinese authorities setup a joint mechanism to reach out to Pakistani students across China to facilitate them in the most befitting manner. He also confirmed that there were 12 to 15 Pakistani students in Wuhan who had fallen into the traps of these mysterious callers and thus were feeling too disturbed and disturbing others too, by pushing them through Wechat messages, etc, but said that since they were too little in numbers, no one was believing the tales that they were narrating. He hailed the efforts of the Special Task force of the Pakistan Embassy and the mechanism introduced by it, to stay in touch with Pakistani students while he paid rich tributes to Chinese authorities and fellow Chinese individuals for hosting Pakistani students with smile in such a moment of national crisis in China.
“I was thinking that if I am at home with my family and some guests come to stay with us and suddenly my family members fall ill, what would be our first requirement? Of course we would wish the guests leave at the earliest so that we could pay attention to the health of our family members. But it is totally different here in China, despite the Chinese nation suffering from such a disastrous, they want us, the foreign students to stay back here and not to leave at all. They want to help us and protect us. What is their loss if we leave China, carry virus with us and spread it back there, in Pakistan? it will have nothing to do with China, but it is their love for Pakistan and Pakistanis that they are trying their best to prevent this from happening and that is why, they do not want us to leave, asserted Mahnoor Makhdoom, a journalist and a student of media sciences at Communication University of China, while giving her views to this scribe. She said she also received some messages on her Wechat account to leave for Pakistan as early as possible to be safe but she ignored such messages as it was absolutely making no sense to leave China as the best possible treatment, if one catches the infection, was only available in China.
The Daily Mail’s findings confirm that the Chinese authorities regard Hubei and especially Wuhan as the most critical area of their fight against the Coronavirus epidemic. In order to contain the epidemic from spreading to other parts of China and overseas, the authorities have placed strict restrictions on travelling from and to Hubei, especially Wuhan. The epidemic control strategy also includes screening, reporting, quarantine and treatment at early stages of the infection. In order to boost its capacity to deal with the epidemic, the Chinese Government has taken huge steps.
A 1,000-bed facility was constructed and commissioned in a matter of ten days in Wuhan. Similarly, another 1200 bed facility to deal with the virus is also likely to be commissioned any moment. Allover Hubei, temporary facilities to deal with the epidemic with around 7000 beds have been created. The health care human resource of Wuhan has been reinforced with an addition of 181 medical teams and 20,374 medical workers. In other parts of Hubei, 36 medical teams and 5,259 medical workers have been dispatched. The authorities are also focusing on publicizing common sense, skills of disinfection, psychological intervention and epidemic prevention and control in local communities.
The Daily Mail finds that Pakistan has 1189 students in Hubei Province and around 28,000 students all over China. Of these, the total number of Pakistani students in Wuhan is 620. Since, the first day of lockdown of Hubei Province due to viral infection, Embassy of Pakistan has played a highly active role to provide utmost facilitation to Pakistani students in Hubei Province in particular, and China in general. Soon after the epidemic spread, the Pakistan Embassy established close liaison with Pakistani students and Chinese government at various tiers to provide assistance to Pakistani students.
However, since Chinese government had put very strong quarantine and travel restrictions for Hubei province in order to minimize the virus spread, Pakistani authorities could not physically reach out to the students over there straightaway but kept a close communication with them. Embassy immediately established two 24/7 hotlines for facilitation of Pakistani students in China. The hotline numbers are: (i) 18501322992 and, (ii) 13167543373. Embassy is also responding to queries of students being received on its three email addresses. Under the supervision of Ambassador of Pakistan, an 11-member core group, that was earlier titled Special Task Force by the people, was constituted to daily monitor the evolving situation and respond to queries/requests of Pakistani students. The Embassy maintained extensive coordination with Pakistani students via different platforms of communication and helped to resolve various issues faced by them.
These findings indicate that Pakistani Embassy did not aborted its efforts its officials to personally reach out to Pakistani students in Hubei despite these travel restriction. Embassy kept holding rounds of talks with Chinese authorities to find some way out. These efforts and exercises finally bore fruit and the Chinese authorities on Monday, 17th February, allowed a Pakistani team from the Embassy to go to Wuhan on the condition that the Embassy officers proceeding to Wuhan would only be able to return once the travel restrictions from Wuhan are lifted. Upon this, the Pakistan Ambassador Naghmana Hashmi dispatched two members of her phenomenal Special Task Force to Hubei with special focus on reaching out to Pakistani students in Wuhan. The team, comprising Third Secretary Junaid and Education Attaché Suleman reached Wuhan city straightaway and met with the Pakistani students from 10 out of 16 universities that cover 579 out of 620 Pakistani student in Wuhan. They also met with administrative staff in each university to get first-hand information on the well being and needs of our students. Apart from this, the team also held meetings with the local authorities and received briefings from them.
The Daily Mail has learnt that assessment of the team with regard to the general condition of Pakistani students, is that they are being well looked after with their food, basic amenities, accommodations requirements catered for. The students are also receiving psychological counseling both from the Embassy of Pakistan and the universities. The task force has reported of things returning to normal in Wuhan.
However, the quarantine requirements of communities are being strictly observed. Universities are also observing preventive/quarantine measures without exception. The Ambassador of Pakistan has placed this team in Wuhan on permanent basis and it will be coordinating with Chinese authorities and Pakistani students and would return to their homes in Beijing once the lockdown in Wuhan is lifted in its entirety and on-ground situation is completely stabilized.
People from various walks of life here in Islamabad have paid rich tributes to the Pakistan Embassy’s officials who have reached out to Wuhan, risking their lives, to console and encourage Pakistani students, redefining the norms of diplomacy and service to the fellow nationals.
Since the outbreak of Coronavirus epidemic till this time, Pakistan has been following a consistent and unwavering policy of standing together with China materially, morally and diplomatically in these trying times at government-to-government and people-to-people levels. While globally there are certain forces, who are actively working not only to discredit China for the exceptional efforts being put in to control the outbreak of epidemic and save the world calamitous disease and but to damage its reputation by unscrupulous actions and statements, there are also elements within the certain circles, who are trying spread rumors to shake the courage and fortitude for parents of students staying in Wuhan and other parts of the China by frightening them of the consequences of the outbreak. It is need of the moment to keep an vigilant eye on the motives of the these elements at every level.
