COVID-19 surfaced in Pakistan after hitting UK first: Zulfikar Bukhari.

ISLAMABAD -- Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP and HRD) Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari Tuesday said the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) had surfaced in Pakistan after the pandemic hit the Britain in start of February.

'There was not even a single case of the virus before it reported in the United Kingdom. The pandemic hit the UK in start of February, while it reached Pakistan by end of the same month,' he said while rejecting the British media reports about the virus outbreak in the kingdom.

In a press release, he said the UK-based publications including The Telegraph, The Sun and Daily Mail had published baseless and misleading news stories in which they claimed that the UK had imported half of the coronavirus cases from Pakistan.

'How can it export the virus to the UK when there was not even a single case reported in Pakistan [at that time],' he questioned.

The SAPM said the publications had done cheap and non-professional reporting by linking the rapid spread of virus in the UK with Pakistan...