The opposition members urged the federal and provincial governments to evolve a unanimous strategy for lockdown in the country to avoid confusion among the people.
The opposition members expressed these views in a meeting of Parliamentary Committee on Covid-19 with Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser in the chair at Parliament House, here on Monday.
The committee discussed current situation of coronavirus, lockdown and relief package for the people. The chief ministers, provincial ministers and officials also participated in the meeting through video link.
Qaiser urged upon all the members of the political parties to work together for a broad-based strategy to fight Covid-19.
He said that parliamentary representatives could bring awareness regarding this disease in their respective constituencies and there was a need to keep balance between health issues and the economic challenges faced by the common man.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Mushahid Ullah Khan who was physically present in the meeting staged a walkout from the meeting in protest for not being given floor by the speaker National Assembly.
Senator Mushahid Ullah said, while talking to this correspondent, that he requested the speaker thrice for taking floor of the meeting but he did not accept his request. He claimed that the speaker listened to all other ministers and officials but he did not give him the floor.
Mushahid said that there was no option left for him but to walk out from the proceeding of the meeting in protest. "The attitude of the speaker was biased. We do not attend the meeting for only sitting there and get TA/DA," he said.
Answering a question, Mushahid said that Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani conducts the house every well without any discrimination. The chairman gives proper time to all the members for expressing their views without any discrimination.
The speaker constituted a Sub-Committee headed by Senator Syed Shibli Faraz with Ali Muhammad Khan, Senator Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Shahida Akthar Ali and Dr Nosheen Hamid, and Parliamentary Secretary for Health as its members to follow-up the recommendations of the committee.
The Minister for Health Punjab Dr Yasmin Rashid, briefed the committee about the number of coronavirus tests conducted, patients found positive, medical facilities available in the hospitals, and isolation and quarantine centers established in the Punjab. She apprised that till date, 58,000 tests had been conducted out of which 3,721 had been diagnosed positive, out of which 2,100 belonged to Tableeghi Jamaat, zayreen and jail inmates.
She informed that an aggressive strategy had been formulated to carry out corona tests in Lahore being the epicenter to access the exact quantum of people affected by the virus. Dr Rashid said that the quarantine and isolation facilities had been increased in different parts of the provinces besides enhancing the present testing capacity of 3,000 per day to 21,000 tests per day.
Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman apprised the committee that 2,667 tests had been conducted out of which 265 were positive. He said that recovery rate of corona patients in Gilgit-Baltistan was 70 percent and it would improve exponentially with the support of the government.
He stressed the need for extending financial support to Gilgit-Baltistan since its economy was dependant on tourism and agriculture, which had been severely effected. He asked for inclusion of destitute from the Gilgit-Baltistan in federal government's Ehsaas financial assistance programme and the BISP.
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