The United Kingdom's General Medical Council (GMC) has suspended the medical practice licence of a British-Pakist doctor after he claimed that Covid-19 was a conspiracy to control the world.
The GMC, which maintains the official list of medical practitioners in the UK, has removed Dr Iqbal Adil's reference number from its website, Geo News reported.
"This person has been suspended from the Medical Register and may not practise as a doctor in the UK," the website said, adding that he was neither on the General Practioner (GP) register nor the specialist one.
"This doctor is not subject to revalidation (as) only doctors holding full registration with a licence to practise are subject to revalidation," the website said.
Dr Adil worked in the UK as a specialist in colorectal and emergency surgery and laparoscopy, having graduated from Bahauddin Zakaria University in Pakistan's Multan city in 1986.
The doctor has peddled various conspiracy theories about coronavirus on social media platforms and in online interviews, claiming that the virus "orchestrated by the elite and is indeed a hoax".
So far, over 10 million people have been infected with Covid-19 worldwide, while the number of fatalities crossed the 500,000 mark, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In an interview to a news outlet, Dr Adil said he had been working for the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK for almost 30 years and was dismissed because of political victimisation, according to Geo News.
The doctor, in various social media posts and YouTube videos, claimed that a vaccine was not a cure for Covid-19 while physical distancing was of no help as well to combat the virus. Almost all of his controversial videos have been taken down by YouTube.
Following the suspension of his medical practice license, the doctor set up a petition at Change.org, which has got over 300 signatures so far. It says that he "is Chairman of All Pakistan Medical Association and Global Nishtarian Orgsation (GNO) with a large number of medical graduates worldwide".
"Mr Adil has a family with 3 children to support. NHS UK need doctors to work. It would not be in the best interest of the public and health system to lose experienced and highly qualified surgeon like him," it added while stressing that it was "an injustice" to suspend his license over "his personal point of view on Covid-19".
"We request to the GMC to revoke his unfair 12 months suspension ... and allow him fair chance to work in this country (for the benefit of) the health system, communities and medical graduates at large," the petition further states.
( With inputs from ANI )