Shoaib Akhtar echoes Pakistan's stunt from SAARC's Coronavirus meeting; raises Kashmir

As the world battles the rising COVID-19, Pakistan continues to rake up the Kashmir issue. Even as Pakistan has at least 94 coronavirus cases, former Pakistan cricket player Shoaib Akhtar on Monday took a jibe at the global lockdown and compared it to Kashmir. This comes a day after Pakistan raised the issue in the SAARC conference. Taking to Twitter, Akhtar posted, "Dear World, How is the lockdown? -Kashmir" The former Pakistan speedster was severely criticized by Twitteratis for his insensitive and untimely tweet.

Pakistan rakes up Kashmir at COVID-19 meet 

Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's special assistant Dr. Zafar Mirza on Sunday, raked up Kashmir while the SAARC countries discussed efforts to battle the epidemic. Mirza expressed his 'concerns' that 19 cases have been detected in Jammu-Kashmir. Demanding India remove the 'lockdown in J&K immediately', he said it was imperative in the face of the emergency. However, Pakistan Prime Minister was the only country leader who did not attend the meeting. 

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"We hope that during this COVID-19 our member countries will provide access to all the regions. In this regard, it is a matter of concern that COVID-19 has reported from Jammu and Kashmir. In the view of emergency its imperative that all lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir must be lifted immediately, opening up communication and movement," said Mirza. The video conference was led by PM Modi and was attended by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, Maldives President Ibrahim Solih, Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bhutan Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's assistant - Dr Zafar Mirza.

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Pakistan locks down POK

Incidentally, the Pakistan administration has imposed a health emergency across Pakistan Occupied Kashmir on Friday as 'a precautionary measure' in spite of allegedly reporting no cases of COVID-19. The Pakistan government has announced that all the schools, colleges and universities across PoK will remain shut till April 6 and has installed strict screening mechanism at all 11 entry points. Meanwhile, 170,238 cases of the novel Coronavirus and 6,526 deaths have been reported globally.

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