The members from both sides of the aisle in the National Assembly on Friday expressed anxiety and confusion over increasing coronavirus cases in the country, leaving the chair with no option but to cut the session short by a week and prorogue the House.
The House Business Advisory Committee had decided on March 9 that the House would remain in session till March 20, but the session was abruptly prorogued after Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said that members from both treasury and opposition had asked for the session to be cut short.
However, the minister did say that there was no need to panic and the prorogation was a just precautionary measure, adding the government was ready to combat the challenge of coronavirus.
He added that Prime Minister Imran Khan had also been consulted on the matter.
With this, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri read out prorogation order, a week before it was supposed to be over.
Earlier, discussing the coronavirus pandemic, the opposition lawmakers blamed both the federal and the provincial governments of not taking adequate measures to contain the virus, saying it must be taken seriously as it was still not too late.
Initiating the debate, former prime minister and senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the issue of coronavirus was of national importance and it was not about political point scoring.
"This is an issue, which may engulf the whole country as the government has failed to formulate and put in place a cohesive national policy to deal with the pandemic," he lamented.
Abbasi said that the provincial governments of Sindh and Balochistan had taken some measures, adding, "we don't see anything, which the [federal] government [had taken] to stop the pandemic of coronavirus [from spreading] throughout the country."
"We appreciate that the prime minister has finally taken notice and called a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC), but the matter is such that it has shut the whole world down," he added.
"The US has shut the flights down...cargo has been stopped from entering various countries. A global crisis is brewing and in comparison to that, we don't see any kind of urgency from the government side. The virus is going to affect the economy, so we must take practical measures to contain the disease," Abbasi maintained. He said that the whole country was worried about the pandemic but instead of focusing on it, the government was busy in rounding up journalists like it arrested Mir Shakilur Rehman of the Jang Group. "A recent verdict of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which clearly defined who the anti-graft body can arrest and when, but the ink of that is yet to dry up, and the government has arrested Mir Shakilur Rehman, which is a disrespect to the courts," the PML-N leader flayed.
Abbasi called upon the government to focus on coronavirus for the next few weeks instead of victimisation of political opponents, as the issue of the pandemic was more important than politics of vendetta. Another former premier and senior leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Raja Pervez Ashraf, blamed the government for not taking timely measures to minimise the spread of the disease.
He said that the government "woke up from the deep slumber" when the opposition started raising voice for the students stuck in Wuhan, China.
"The government should have taken timely action, as now the virus has spread all over Italy and even tawaf has been stopped at the holy mosque in Saudi Arabia. In these circumstances, we press for immediate imposition of state of emergency in the country," Ashraf added.
He also demanded the government to provide real data on coronavirus in the country to the House as well as the number of passengers screened at airports and how many of them were actually tested positive.
Ashraf went as far as to suggest that Pakistan should shut all airports "for at least two weeks".
Agha Hassan Baloch from the BNP-M said that the Balochistan government was responsible for the spread of coronavirus to all over the country. He criticised the Balochistan government for not taking adequate steps to check people coming from Iran. "What if the virus travels with us when we come here to attend the National Assembly session...Balochistan government is committing a crime by not taking adequate measures to stop the spread of the virus," Baloch remarked. Responding to the opposition's criticism, Minister for Higher Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood said that when the coronavirus issue first surfaced in Wuhan, the government was in a fix about the students stuck in China.
"The Chinese advised us not to allow these students to leave Wuhan and assured us that they will be taken care of. Today, the number of coronavirus cases is decreasing in China and the situation is improving there," he added. Mehmood also regretted the Sindh government's decision of shutting down the schools, saying it should have waited for the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting's decision.
Later in the evening announced closure of educations institutions all over the country till April 5. He said that the opposition should not use the issue for political point scoring, adding all possible steps were being taken to contain and control spread of coronavirus in the country. Mehmood said that the government was vigilant and closely monitoring and scrutinising the situation, besides taking appropriate steps to check the pandemic. He said a quarantine centre was established at the Pak-Afghan Border for screening of Pakistani citizens coming from Iran.
He said around one million people were screened at different airports of the country, while diagnostic kits were provided at various hospitals.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan is also very concerned about this matter and he has convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Committee this evening to evolve a strategy in this regard.
Giving detail of various government measures regarding coronavirus, Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services, Nousheen Hamid said a daily meeting of all the relevant agencies takes place daily to review an action plan on day-to-day basis against the pandemic.
She said that appropriate screening measures are in place at airports and the federal government is providing diagnostic kits to provinces.
She said isolation wards have been established in hospitals of all the big cities of the country.
Responding to a point, Parliamentary Secretary on Aviation Division Jamil Ahmed Khan informed the House that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has rescheduled a flight to bring back Pakistan citizens from Saudi Arabia this Sunday.
He said the national flag carrier will ensure all possible arrangements to take Pakistani citizens to Saudi Arabia and from there to back home.
The House was prorogued sine die.
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