Opposition political parties on Thursday urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to show "seriousness" in efforts to prevent COVID-19 outbreak, and demanded that meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) should be held on a daily basis to monitor the situation.
A day earlier, leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari walked out from a parliamentary party meeting for not being heard by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
However, on Thursday, Shehbaz Sharif presented a comprehensive mechanism for the provision of food and medicines in case of a complete lockdown in the country to contain the virus.
In his proposal, Shehbaz said food and other essential items should be retailed by the Utility Stores through home delivery ordered through calls and telephone apps, adding that post offices and the National Logistic Cell (NLC)'s human resource can also be used for this purpose.
He said railway freight rains should be used for transporting those items to various parts of the country at mass scale. Shehbaz proposed that the prices of food and essential items should be subsidized using Baitul Maal and the BISP.
He stressed that all personnel involved in that operation must be provided protective kits and essential safety items.
He warned that after the spike in coronavirus cases in the country, it was now unavoidable and non-negotiable to enforce a complete shutdown to contain further spread of the disease.
He called for an immediate disinfection drive through municipal staff across the country and especially in areas with high density of infected cases. He pointed out the grave situation in Rawalpindi, and Bhara Kahu and called for immediate attention to the areas.
He renewed his call for inclusion of opposition's proposals to the "insufficient and vague" economic package announced by the government. Shehbaz demanded that the Parliamentary Committee on COVID-19 be upgraded to "Parliamentary Monitoring Committee", so that it could analyze and ensure effective implementation of the steps and call out dereliction.
He also demanded that the Sindh Government's Charter of Demand be immediately sent to the federal government and be approved at once. "Meeting of the Council of Common Interest must be held on a daily basis and Punjab's Local Government be reinstated immediately," he said. Shehbaz once again called for the policy rate to be cut by at least four percent.
He said that that was no time for "mindless, egomaniacal, arrogant and stubborn tantrums" fuelled by "vengeance" and "prejudice" and called for "sanity, unity and coherence". He also paid rich tribute to the armed forces, Rangers, doctors, nurses and paramedical staff for their service to the nation, while putting their own lives in harm's way.
He stressed that ensuring the protection of the front line soldiers in this fight against the pandemic was assurance of the safety of the lives of the entire nation.
Former chairman Senate and Pakistan People's Party (PPP) senior leader Mian Raza Rabbani, while talking to Business Recorder 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" for it.
He said it was the prime responsibility of the government to deal with the challenging situation of the country. The opposition is ready to become a helping hand of the government, if the prime minister is serious for 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". He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday left the meeting of Parliamentary leader 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. Senator Attaur Rehman of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said that the government was not taking the epidemic situation in the country "seriously". He said that the opposition had offered the government to cooperate at any level at this difficult time but the prime minister was not serious about it.
"The prime minister showed non-serious attitude in the meeting of Parliamentary leaders and disregarded opposition by leaving the meeting without listening to the members of the opposition," he said.
Senator Usman Kakar of Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) said that both the government and the opposition were "not serious" about dealing with the situation in the country. He said that many pilgrims were coming form Iran at Taftan border and entering Balochistan without any scrutiny. He said that the government was not providing sufficient facilities to protect the people from coronavirus.