The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President, Shehbaz Sharif, and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, on Wednesday staged a walkout after Prime Minister Imran Khan left the meeting without listening to the speeches of the opposition leaders.
The prime minister, who was addressing a meeting of parliamentary leaders' of the National Assembly and the Senate in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic in the country, did not bother to wait for parliamentary leaders of other political parties, who were supposed to give their point of view on the issue.
The leaders of the two major opposition parties - the PPP and the PML-N - expressed their resentment and walked out of the meeting, when the prime minister left after completing his address.
Shehbaz came down hard on the prime minister, saying the country was passing through a critical phase; and the chief executive was not even ready to sit down with the opposition, which shows his level of seriousness. "I won't address unless the prime minister remains present in the meeting. The country is going through such a big crisis, but the prime minister is not ready to listen to us," he regretted.
Shehbaz reiterated, "If this is the measure of commitment of the prime minister, the opposition will not participate in the meeting," adding, the PM does not even care that this was a national consultation meeting. "None of the opposition parties' leaders came to the meeting for the sake of politics but were there to mull over the best way forward to save the country," he added.
"Why did the PM leave the meeting...this meeting was about bringing calm to the public by ensuring them unity, coherence and purposeful resolve, but the conduct of the prime minister has made it impossible, which is why a walkout was the only option," Shehbaz added. Bilawal seconded the opposition leader and said it was of no use to participate in such a conference where there was no one to listen to, adding the prime minister must take such moots seriously as we all should make joint efforts to overcome the challenges. Other members of the PPP and PML-N, however, continued their participation in the session.
They stressed the need for all the political parties to rise above party line, as the pandemic could be defeated only through joint efforts and coordination.
Addressing the meeting, Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said that it was not the time to criticise or play politics, it was a matter of national security and we have to get rid of the coronavirus collectively.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi strongly reacted to the walkout by Sharif and Bilawal, and said that the move was beyond comprehension as the opposition leaders should show some maturity at this testing time. Briefing the participants, he requested Shehbaz to review his decision after he walked out of an important meeting that was held on the increasing cases of coronavirus.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said that nearly 80 percent of the 892 officially confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Pakistan had earlier travelled to Iran. He said that gender-disaggregated data indicates that 63 percent of the confirmed patients in the country were men and 33 percent were women, adding there had been a marked increase in confirmed cases in the country over the past few days.
Dr Mirza said that the federal and provincial governments, assisted by the Pakistan Army, were taking strict measures to restrict the unnecessary movement of people in the hope of interrupting the further spread of the disease, and achieving a progressive decline in cases. Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said that the federal government had decided to give Rs 26 billion to tackle the issue, of which Rs 5 billion had already been released.
He said that the top priority of the NDMA was to provide safety gears for the medics and other paramedical staff besides "arranging as many ventilators as we can for the infected patients". In the first phase, he said 500 ventilators would be brought to the country, adding the Chinese government was extending full support to the government and hopefully the pandemic would be rooted out.
He said that the plane carrying assistance in the form of medical equipment had arrived from China on Wednesday, which included 450,000 facemasks - including 50,000 N-95 masks. "Pakistan's needs for medical equipment will be fulfilled through assistance from China in fight against the coronavirus...in the second phase, the number of ventilators will be pushed to 2,000, while testing capacity will be increased by 1.5 million kits and the number of ventilators will be increased to 15,000," he added.
The parliamentary meeting that was held through video link did not give any practical solution and united move against ongoing coronavirus pandemic as the political leaders from both sides of the government and the opposition just did emotional speeches and targeted each other instead of deliberating seriously on the issue.
However, the government asked the opposition leaders to come up with solution against this virus instead of doing politics and only criticizing the government. "Only criticism is not the solution against this virus we are facing today," said Firdous Ashiq Awan, adding that all political parties should support the government's efforts against coronavirus.