KARACHI: Taimur Khan Jhagra, who holds the joint portfolio of finance and health minister of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, was booked in a police case on Monday for violating COVID-19 health guidelines by attending an iftaar meal at a restaurant where “hundreds” of guests were present, the deputy commissioner of Peshawar said on Tuesday.
Peshawar, the capital of KP, currently has a coronavirus positivity rate of 22.6 percent, one of the highest in the country. The province’s second largest city of Mardan, 39 miles from the capital, recorded the highest COVID-19 positivity ratio in Pakistan in the last 24 hours, at 35.4 percent.
The government has banned dining at restaurants across the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as Pakistan battles a deadly third wave of the pandemic. But photos and videos of the iftar dinner at Peshawar’s ‘Hujra’ restaurant that circulated on social media on Monday showed Jhagra and hundreds of others gathered at the dinner without masks or social distancing.
A police case had been registered against the minister for violating standard operating procedures, Sajjad Khan, a spokesperson at the deputy commissioner’s office told Arab News, saying the hotel manager and owner had also been named in the police report and the restaurant sealed.
“No one is above the law,” the deputy commissioner said in a statement on Monday. “The district administration is taking indiscriminate actions on the violation of government’s rules.”
The manager of the restaurant, who is quoted in the statement, said the dinner went on despite his warning to the health minister about the ban on indoor restaurant dining.
Jhagra did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
On Sunday, he shared a public service video message on Twitter with the caption: “Precaution is better — our attitude will save lives as well as the health system.”
احتیاط بہتر ہے - ہمارا رویہ زندگیوں کو بھی بچائے گا اور صحت کے نظام کو بھی pic.twitter.com/jmiJNdgkGm
— Taimur Khan Jhagra (@Jhagra) April 25, 2021
In another message, Jhagra called for the public’s “support for & understanding of the pressure on the health system.”
“Wear a mask. Keep your distance. It all helps,” the minister wrote.
1. Two graphs to explain load of the Covid 3rd wave that public hospitals in KP have absorbed.
On the left, 1927 patients in public hospitals (1070 HDU, 145 ICU, 78 on vent, 704 low flow) today. On the right, the current peak of 1070 HDU patients is 5.5x more than on March 1. pic.twitter.com/MGGyVgcGsc— Taimur Khan Jhagra (@Jhagra) April 25, 2021
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