Federal Minister for Housing Tariq Bashir Cheema of the Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid came under fire on Tuesday after video clips surfaced on social media allegedly showing several of his family members getting vaccinated for the coronavirus. The video clips, that were originally shared on the Instagram account of one of Cheema’s relatives, showed health workers vaccinating several people gathered at someone’s home. The account is no longer active on Instagram. Model Iffat Omar was also seen present during the vaccinations.
The Other Side: The minister — in a statement reported by TV channels — denied using his political influence to have members of his family vaccinated. He claimed that teams from the University of Health Sciences came to his home to administer a booster shot of a trial vaccine, adding that it had done the same before.
Federal Minister for Housing and Works Tariq Bashir Cheema supervises the Covid-19 vaccination of his entire family – at his home pic.twitter.com/hpZ681frMF
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) March 29, 2021
The Aftermath: The video clips stirred up a storm on social media as netizens and journalists called out the minister and the model for “jumping the queue” for Covid-19 vaccination. The government is currently only vaccinating health workers and those above the age of 60 while registration of those above the age of 50 has started from today. Read more from ProperGaanda here.