Joint strategy to deal with Covid-19: Disconnect between government, opposition

There is an evident disconnect between the government and opposition parties on formulating a collective strategy to deal with the novel coronavirus in the backdrop of alarming rise in the COVID-19 cases in Pakistan over the last few days.
The top leaders of key political parties including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) have strongly criticised the government for being 'non-serious' in forging political unity to fight off coronavirus.
Earlier on Wednesday, President PML-N Shehbaz Sharif and Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari walked out of a parliamentary parties' meeting for not being heard by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On Thursday, Shehbaz Sharif presented what he claimed is a 'comprehensive' mechanism for the provision of food and medicines in case of a complete lockdown in the country to contain the virus.
Speaking to Business Recorder, Chairman PML-N Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said, the government has not taken the opposition into the loop while taking important decisions of national importance on battling coronavirus. "The Punjab cabinet unilaterally decided to postpone the local government elections for nine months, without taking the parliament and political parties on board. The government should also have consulted the parliament and political parties before taking other important decisions linked to coronavirus like deployment of military troops across the country, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan," he added.
The opposition parties, he said, urged the prime minister earlier on Thursday to show 'seriousness' in efforts to prevent COVID-19 outbreak, and demanded that meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) should be held to monitor the situation.
Speaking to Business Recorder, former chairman Senate and senior PPP leader Mian Raza Rabbani said that the opposition was ready to cooperate with Prime Minister Imran Khan to deal with the situation of coronavirus but he was "not serious" about it.
He said it was the prime responsibility of the government to deal with the challenging situation in the country.
The opposition is ready to give a helping hand to the government, if the prime minister is serious about it, he said.
He said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto had already said that the prime minister should lead and the opposition was ready to follow him.
But the government's attitude is 'not serious,' Rabbani said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday left the meeting of parliamentary parties' leaders after his speech without listening to the members of the opposition.
"We should unite at this time to face the crisis in the country and evolve national policy to protect us from coronavirus," he said.
A senator from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), requesting anonymity, dismissed the criticism of opposition parties. "The challenges posed by coronavirus is something that needs to be dealt with by the executive (government) keeping in view the experts' advice, applying scientific interventions as well as administrative authority. This is not a political matter that needs political consensus. This is a very serious global challenge and we cannot simply play politics on an issue that risks the life of virtually each and every human being on this planet," the source said. "The prime minister held a meeting (through video link) with the leaders of parliamentary parties but Shehbaz and Bilawal walked out. We can't force them to sit with us and talk," he said.
The source said that the option to hold a CCI meeting to map out a detailed strategy against coronavirus in coordination with the provinces is under the review of the prime minister. "Hopefully, this meeting would be convened in the next few days," the senator said.
Sources in federal government said, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is also the Vice Chairman of PTI is in close contact with the parliamentary leaders of all the political parties.
They said that Qureshi has assured the opposition parties that their appropriate input will be welcomed and placed before the National Coordination Committee which has been tasked by the National Security Committee to propose and decide the coordinated line of action to fight COVID-19.