Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday recommended to the federal government to put the country under a lockdown to protect life and economy from the deadly coronavirus.
Addressing a press conference, Bilawal, who was flanked by the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, said the country was going to face a two-front war - one is to fight the global pandemic COVID-19, and the other was to rescue the dwindling economy.
"We have to fight the current situation with unity," he said.
Commenting on SBP's latest decision to reduce interest rate by 75 basis points (bps), Bilawal said it was too little too late.
"We need some more drastic actions as our economy will need a sizable amount of investment," he said.
The PPP chairman also announced postponement of commemoration of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death anniversary next month.
"The Sindh province is easing towards a self-imposed lockdown, isolation and containment approach. We want this lockdown across the country," Bilawal said, urging Prime Minister Imran Khan to lead the nation.
Responding to a query, PPP chairman said, "I will not criticize Imran Khan. He is our prime minister, and he is our federal health minister. I expect him to lead the nation from the front in this difficult time."
Bilawal said he was expecting of the Sindh government that they should make it illegal to fire any daily wage employee at this crucial time. He said it should be the legal responsibility of the employers to ensure timely disbursement of salaries to those employees who do not come to offices due to fear of the virus.
"We will keep a record of such employers, and once we will be able to cope with the situation, we would also compensate them [the employers]," he said.
The provincial government had decided to set up a field hospital at the Expo Center in Karachi for which help would be sought from the Pakistan Army, he said.
Bilawal also offered to work with the federal government and the armed forces to combat the coronavirus. He urged the center to help the provinces get testing kits.
"Our first priority is to tackle the spread of the coronavirus," he said.
The PPP chairman said that spreading chaos must be avoided, adding that the Sindh government was trying its best to combat the deadly coronavirus.
He said that the coronavirus had already claimed two lives in the country, adding that the virus had a major impact on the elderly people.
Soon after the virus was detected in China, Bilawal said the Sindh government adopted measures. He said the majority of the cases in Sindh were the pilgrims who had returned from Iran.
Bilawal went on to say that we all have to fight the virus and stand united in these critical times. "We must stop criticism, blame and political point scoring," he said and added that the federal government would have to bring about "some changes" to its action plan.
The PPP chairman said that the provincial government would take up the responsibility of providing food supplies to the poor as they had to self-isolate themselves at their homes.
He said that all government functionaries are performing their responsibilities and the provincial lawmakers are also directed to remain in their constituencies to create awareness of the infection and take part in efforts to tackle its spread.
"Entire world is striving to find a solution to the ongoing situation," he said.
"We will also take care of the doctors and nursing staff," he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah announced that the provincial government would recruit medical degree holders on a six-month contract period to fill the gap of shortage of doctors to deal with the growing number of the coronavirus cases in the province.
"Every person having a medical degree besides nurses and technical staff will be hired," he said.
He said that an amount of three billion rupees was collected in the fund established by the Sindh government and maintained by the chief secretary.
"Faisal Edhi, Mushtaq Chhapra and Dr Bari will utilize these funds," the chief minister said.
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