Coronavirus outbreak: Pakistan backs Chinese propaganda

Everytime the world faces an emergency, there's an onslaught of conjecture and conspiracy theories.

Some emerge out of nowhere on the internet, others are hollered on prime-time debates. A good number of conspiracy theories continue to come our way from across the border - Pakistan.

The country has over 2000 active cases of the coronavirus, but instead of imposing a lockdown, the Imran Khan government seems to have unleashed conspiracy theorists to shift the blame away from China. 

Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's former Foreign Minister, says that the coronavirus was scientifically engineered by the governments of the United States and European nations.

The purpose, he says, was to halt fast-emerging China.

Harooni is joined by Dr Atta ur-Rehman who says that the coronavirus got leaked from a lab in the United States.

He says there is also a possibility that a laboratory in the UK was involved. Dr Rahman is a scientist who serves as the co-chair at the UN Committee on science and technology. 

There have been 31 deaths due to the Wuhan coronavirus in Pakistan. Instead of seeking some accountability from Beijing for the evolving crisis, the Pakistani establishment and UN-level dignitaries, are peddling conspiracy theories to defend China.

Meanwhile, Pakistani courts are quietly letting out terrorists as the world is busy fighting this pandemic. 

The Sindh High Court in Pakistan has overturned the death sentence of the main accused in the 2002 Daniel Pearl murder case.

Daniel Pearl was a Wall Street Journal reporter researching on Islamist militants in Karachi and their links to the 9/11 attacks. He was kidnapped by extremists. A video showing his beheading was sent to the US consulate in Karachi.

Pakistan's judiciary has collapsed. The economy is functioning on international borrowing, the health-care system is not prepared for the coronavirus. It is among the worst-affected nations in South Asia, but Imran Khan is indulging in petty politics and Islamabad is fuelling conspiracy theories to back China.