A leaked video of designer Maria B created havoc on social media yesterday as she was seen making a plea to Imran Khan regarding how Lahore police treated her husband like a criminal.
In the one minute clip, she was informing the public about how her husband was taken away by armed policemen who showed up at their home past midnight and refused to cooperate.
According to reports that surfaced after, Lahore police confirmed Tahir Saeed’s arrest on the grounds that the couple was negligent and had let their cook Umer Farooq, who had tested positive for Covid-19, flee back to his village in Vihari, Punjab.
Since it took Farooq two local buses to reach his native hometown, the imprisonment was on grounds of hiding his diagnosis, failing to quarantine him or inform relevant authorities, and therefore knowingly putting local lives at risk.
The counter statment from an official of Punjab police after the clarification statment of Maria B and he claims everything is a lie which they both told in the video . ( Audio ) #MariaB pic.twitter.com/QVp3d59Zt1
— Mohid Rabbani (@imohidrabbani) March 25, 2020
However, after facing more backlash for being “irresponsible elites”, the duo once again took to social media to explain their side in a 20 minute long video on the brand’s official accounts. The post has since been deleted.
“Chughtai Lab didn’t tell us what to do, the government didn’t tell us what to do. The cook said he had symptoms and asked to be sent home so his siblings can take better care of him, that’s when we sent him,” she explained.
Response of maria b
& husband
???? pic.twitter.com/DALxsIvzqU— ???????????????? ???????????????? (@MainZara1170) March 24, 2020
“This whole case was portrayed as though we recklessly sent him off to Vehari. It’s a virus, it’s spreading everywhere and the government is probably not even aware that it’s in Vehari and came through him into our home, we’re the ones who are upset!” she continued.
In a country where the Prime Minister has time and again addressed the nation regarding social distancing and the importance of quarantine for the safety of others, it’s extremely disappointing that the privileged are acting selfishly instead of lending a hand to those who need their aid the most.
They had no qualms about calling the authorities when they needed a bail out, why couldn’t they call the relevant authorities before the cook left their premises? Or taken him to a hospital with an isolation ward for that matter?
The pandemic does not discriminate between race or class since everyone is at equal risk but clearly people do.
Most of the folks whose lives may have been endangered during the two bus rides will barely be able to afford the healthcare and precautions the designer can but apparently that’s okay as long as her own family is practicing social distancing (the rules of which are apparently different for the domestic help).
Did the couple really need to be told how distancing works despite the entire world collaborating to explain it? A simple Google search would have sufficed. What rock were they living under? Or was that a chandelier…
Feel the difference of law between Elite Class & Lower class #MariaB #mariab Face with look of triumph pic.twitter.com/mVGYfVsjBI
— Hamza Malik (حمزہ ملک)???????? (@hamza_decent) March 25, 2020
While in no way are we condoning police using excessive force, we’re living in unprecedented times; if we can’t grasp the need for collective and individual responsibility, we have no chance of containing this pandemic.
