Islamabad (Web Desk): The Foreign Office on Sunday strongly rejected Australian news outlet’s reports, claiming China's Wuhan lab operating “covert operations” in Pakistan and creating "anthrax-like pathogens" as a politically motivated and fake story.
The Foreign Office, in a statement, said the story was composed of distortion of facts and fabrications that quote anonymous sources.
"There is nothing secret about the Bio-Safety Level-3 (BSL-3) Laboratory of Pakistan referred to in the report," said the statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued today. "Pakistan has been sharing information about the facility with the States Parties to the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (BTWC) in its submission of Confidence Building Measures.
"The facility is meant for diagnostic and protective system improvement by Research and Development (R&D) on emerging health threats, surveillance and disease outbreak investigation.
"Pakistan strictly abides by its BTWC obligations and has been one of the most vocal supporters for a strong verification mechanism to ensure full compliance by the States Parties to the Convention."
"The attempt to cast aspersions about the facility is particularly absurd against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the need for better preparedness in the areas of disease surveillance and control and international collaborations in that regard, consistent with Article X of BTWC," added the statement.
The Klaxon report, quoting unnamed "intelligence experts", claims China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology has "set up operations in Pakistan as part of a broader offensive against India and Western rivals".
"The secret facility is allegedly making anthrax-like pathogens which could be used in biological warfare," the report published on July 23 alleges.