ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said on Sunday that Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally handling the matter of Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries not accepting travelers vaccinated with Chinese jabs.

Saudi Arabia's updated travel restrictions require visitors to take Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson jabs in order to enter the country, leaving out Chinese shots, including the Sinopharm, Sinovac, and CanSino-Bio vaccines widely used in Pakistan. In Qatar, only Pfizer and Moderna are approved. In Kuwait, Oman, only Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

In late May, Pakistan requested Saudi Arabia to include Chinese vaccines to its list of approved COVID-19 shots for visitors traveling to perform Hajj and Umrah.

"On the problem about Pfizer and vaccine (acceptance) in Saudi Arabia and Middle East, Imran Khan himself is handling this. And he said in a cabinet meeting that he was talking to the concerned countries," Rasheed told reporters in Islamabad.

Last month, the World Health Organization gave emergency authorization to Sinopharm, raising hopes in the countries that rely on in it that the Chinese vaccine would be soon widely approved.