Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi directed the health department to improve the standard of COVID-19 testing as he didn’t look satisfied over the ongoing testing standard of suspected coronavirus patients in the province.
As per the details, the second meeting of all party parliamentary committee of Punjab Assembly constituted over COVID-19 was held on Thursday with Speaker Elahi in the chair through video link and the representatives of all the parties also attended it. The participants were briefed by the secretary of Primary and Secondary Healthcare department Captain retd Usman, secretary of Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education department Nabeel Awan and minister for health Dr Yasmin Rashid. Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi said that there is a need to improve the standard of COVID-19 testing in the province to contain the pandemic. “The tests of three suspected patients of COVID-19 were positive when they went to the government laboratories in Gujrat but the tests of same suspects were negative from the private laboratories,” Elahi observed. He was of the view that there is a possibility that the testing equipment are not giving the right results and therefore the government must fix them immediately.
Law Minister Raja Basharat, PPP Parliamentary Leader Syed Hassan Murtaza, PML-N MPAs Samiullah Khan, Sardar Awais Laghari, Kh Salman Rafique, PTI MPAs Nazir Chohan, Ameen Zulqarnain, and MPAs Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh and Maulana Muavia Azam participated in the meeting through video link. PML-N MPA Samiullah Khan said that the government did nothing from 13th January to 28th February-the time meant to do preparations to contain the pandemic as only notifications after notifications were issued in this time instead of doing some concrete measures. He was of the view that the government contacted the Chinese government in the mid of March to get input from the country that contained the pandemic successfully. He further added that the doctors are protesting even today while demanding the Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to treat the Corona patients but the government isn’t paying any heed to their justified demand as they are the frontline soldiers in this war. MPA Samiullah Khan also said that the lawmakers of Punjab must be taken into confidence regarding the share of the province that Punjab is getting from the federal government in the form of aid and finance to fight the COVID-19. “We are ready to play our roles in this war as our party President Shehbaz Sharif has already directed us to be part of the awareness campaign against COVID-19,” Samiullah said, while talking to Daily Times. He told this scribe that the PML-N is already distributing safety kits to doctors and giving masks to the public.
PPP MPA Hassan Murtaza demanded to expand the testing facility at the district levels or at least at divisional level. Former health minister and PML-N MPA Kh Salman Rafique wasn’t satisfied over the arrangement in the prisons of Punjab. He said that the staff of prisons must be provided with the PPEs keeping in view the increasing number of COVID-19 patients there.
Speaker Elahi directed the health department to consider the suggestions of the lawmakers while demanding the compliance report in the next meeting of the parliamentary committee. He also paid his gratitude to health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid for giving a detailed briefing to the MPAs. The next meeting of the committee will be held on Friday (today) in which the lawmakers will be briefed on Food and the Wheat procurement. Senior minister Aleem Khan will also participate in today’s meeting.
