Within days after the Pakistan foreign ministry expressed displeasure at the decision of the Saudi Arabian government to not recognise China made Sinopharm vaccine and restrict entry to all who have taken the vaccine, the Chinese government has said that Pakistanis can travel visa-free to Xinjiang province to look for work.
Saudi Arabia had announced just a couple of days ago that it will not be allowing entry to people who have been vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine citing its low efficacy against the virus as found by various studies. In a rare admission of low quality, the China Centre for Disease Control also admitted that the vaccine is showing very poor results in fighting the virus.
Pakistan has been heavily reliant on the China-made vaccine to vaccinate its population due to the lack of supply of other brands and the economic condition of the country making it difficult to place bulk orders. The “all-weather allies” have been supporting each other through these difficult times and this decision by another long time partner has thrown a spanner in the works.
Pakistan has over 2.7 million of its citizens working in Saudi Arabia and is one of the largest expatriate population in the Middle Eastern country. They also account for the largest contribution to fund inflow in Pakistan. Many of the expatriates have been stuck in Pakistan since the travel ban had been imposed by Saudi and have been struggling to get back to their place of work.
Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has promised the Pakistani population that Prime Minister Imran Khan will personally look into this matter and find a solution. He also announced that Pakistan will now be administering the Pfizer vaccine to those who need to travel out of the country for work or studies. Pakistan has also recently started manufacturing the Chinese vaccine under the name of PakVac recently.
Pakistan has been extremely dependent on China in the past decade with many within Pakistan getting angsty over the level of influence that China has on the country, its infrastructure, government and army. Some within the international circles have even gone on to claim that Pakistan is a step away from being declared a colony of China. This has been categorically denied by both countries who labelled their friendship as being based on trust and mutual benefit.
The two countries have also had each others back in diplomatic circles and it was no surprise when Pakistan decided to go with the Chinese vaccine when it was launched into the open market. China also provided a large number of free doses to the Pakistani population. China has also helped Pakistan with upgrading its medical infrastructure keeping in mind the large number of Chinese who work in Pakistan for the Belt and Road Initiative.
With the prospect of thousands of Pakistani’s losing their jobs in Saudi Arabia due to the inability to get back, China has decided to step in once again. China has opened up visa-free travel and job opportunities for Pakistani’s who were based in Saudi Arabia to the Muslim majority region of Xinjiang.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/06/09/china-invites-pakistanis-to-xinjiang-after-saudi-restriction-on-entry-to-chinese-vaccine-takers/