In his speech in the National Assembly today, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked the government to focus on the growing COVID-19 pandemic instead of taking part in political victimisation. He got support from the opposition leaders, who believed that the current government is not taking any steps towards to protect the people from the coronavirus.
In his speech, Abbasi claimed that no national policy has been developed, even though COVID-19 can “envelop” the whole nation. Furthermore, he stated that while Sindh and Balochistan are taking measures, why isn’t the rest of the country doing the same? However, while criticising the government, Abbasi did approve Prime Minister Khan’s move to hold a National Security Council (NSC) meeting to discuss the issue. Abbasi also talked about the whole world slowing down because of the virus:
“The US has shut flights down; cargo has been stopped, a global crisis is brewing and in comparison to that, we are not seeing the kind of urgency [from the government] as is required. The virus is going to envelop the economy and the whole country; we need to take practical steps to stop it’s spread.”
Not only that, but Abbasi also stated that now is not the time to be arresting people such as Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, the editor-in-chief of Jang Media Group, as the government should instead focus on containing the COVID-19:
“The ink on an Islamabad High Court judgement regarding whom the National Accountability Bureau can arrest and when had not even dried up when the government decided to disregard it and arrest Rehman.”
Another former Prime Minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, also spoke up and stated that the members had been discussing the issue since the news about people coming in from Wuhan came forward, yet the government had not taken any steps about it.
“Now the whole of Italy has been quarantined and tawaf has been stopped at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia. In such circumstances, we demand imposition of state of emergency in the country. We are politicians and cannot avoid meeting people. However, the house should suspend its normal business and take up the issue. The government should give the house the real data and statistics on the number of passengers screened at airports and how many of them actually tested positive.”
Ashraf further suggested that Pakistan should shut all airports “for at least for two weeks”.
Government Response to Abbasi
Minister for Higher Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said: “When this issue came to surface, we were in a fix regarding the students stuck in Wuhan. 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.”
Moving on to steps being taken by Pakistan, Mahmood stated: “The Sindh government has shut schools down and announced an emergency in the province – they should have waited for today’s NSC meeting.
“No schools or colleges have been shut down in the United Kingdom.” Mahmood said defending his statement.
He further said that the opposition should not use the issue for political point scoring.
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