ISLAMABAD: Leader of the House in Senate and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Syed Shibli Faraz Thursday underlined the need for exhibiting greater national unity by all political parties to tackle the coronavirus threat, especially the post COVID-19 challenges.
“At this time, we need national unity so that the coming challenges, which will be harder than of today’s, could be tackled effectively,” he said while participating in the debate held in Senate on the virus containment strategy.
He asked the opposition not to indulge in the blame-game and avoid political point-scoring at this critical juncture, adding if it had requisitioned the parliament session, their leaders must have attended it despite making health issue as an excuse.
From the day one, Shibli Faraz said, the government had devised an effective strategy to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), despite having limited resources that worked and yielded required results.
He said as compared to resourceful countries including the United States, United Kingdom and Italy, Pakistan had succeeded in containing the virus to a great extent as it limited the number of patients due to preventive measures introduced by the government.
He said there were over 1,400,000 confirmed positive cases and 100,000 deaths in the United States that had around $3 trillion GDP, while United Kingdom and Italy had also over 200,000 COVID-19 cases and 30,000 deaths.
Whereas in Pakistan, he said, the number of confirmed cases had just increased to 30,000 and deaths were below 1,000 mark, which reflected the effectiveness of the government policy towards controlling the virus spread.
Leader of the House Shibli Faraz said despite having limited resources and lack of healthcare facilities, Pakistan was facing the situation with courage and managed to contain the virus to a great extent.
He said the government devised the COVID-19 strategy in consultation with all federating units, keeping in view the hardships of daily wagers, vendors and shopkeepers besides enforcing necessary preventive measures to stop the virus spread.
He said the government announced a historic financial assistance package of Rs1.2 trillion to help those people, who had affected due to economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.
Under its Ehsaas Emergency Programme, he said the government had so far distributed around Rs100 billion among 65,000 to 80,000 families so that they could lead their lives in a respectable way.
Referring to a television programme, the minister said a lady was narrating that her husband committed suicide after he could not feed his children due to the evolving situation of the deadly virus and slowdown of the economic activities.
“There are a number of such tales,” he said, adding the government was focusing on safeguarding the masses from both the coronavirus as well as the hunger.
He said the government believed in transparent and equal distribution of financial assistance, adding the Sindh government had so far been given over Rs 31 billion under the programme.
Shibli Faraz said the government had set up forums of National Coordination Committee (NCC) and National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), where all provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan had representation.
He said the forums were monitoring the COVID-19 situation and distribution of equipments and other relief assistance to provinces on daily basis, which were being carried out in a judicious manner.
He said imposing a ‘complete lockdown’ was the mindset of Elite class that could afford meeting their day to day expenses without any difficulty, but a common man could not afford, who managed bread and butter for their families on daily basis.
Shibli Faraz asked the opposition parties to share their parallel COVID-19 plan, views on clamping a curfew, strategy about five-time prayer and Taraveeh besides getting the anti-virus vaccine.
He said Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umer and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had appeared before the commission probing the sugar and flour crisis, as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government believed in supremacy of the law.
He regretted that some opposition leaders were avoiding appearing before the commission.Taking part in the debate, Siraj ul Haq of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) said it was the testing-time for the whole world and everyone should fairly examine their deeds and seek forgiveness from the Allah Almighty for their sins.
He also talked of the country’s limited resources including shortage of ventilators for the treatment and giving life-support to the COVID-19 patients.
He suggested increasing the virus testing capacity and providing the facility free of charge so that each and every Pakistani could be tested without putting any financial burden on them.
Siraj also highlighted the miseries of overseas Pakistanis aspiring to return to their motherland and those who had arrived the country and underwent the virus tests and mandatory quarantine.
Taking part in the debate, Usman Khan Kakar of Pashtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PMAP) appreciated the doctors and paramedic staff who were in frontline against the COVID-19.
He criticized the federal government for not providing due share in relief package to Balochistan. He said there was only one laboratory in Quetta for coronavirus test while no such facility was available in other districts.
He also called for effective lockdown to cope with the pandemic.
Mohsin Aziz of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said now the coronavirus pandemic was going towards endemic. He said over four million people across the globe had been affected so far due to the virus.
He said the government should be appreciated for extending maximum relief to the people despite the meager resources and financial constraints.
Robina Khalid of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) said national hero status should be given to those doctors and paramedic staff and others who were fighting in the frontline against the COVID-19. She said the virus badly affected Khyber Pakhunkhwa province.
Rehman Malik of PPP said it was not time for point-scoring and coronavirus should not be use as platform for electioneering.
He said free test facility should be provided to the poor people as they could not afford it.
