LAHORE: A constitutional petition filed in the Supreme Court (SC) demanded that the government should use the funds collected for the construction of dams to fight the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Petitioners requested the court to order the federal government to declare a national public health emergency across the country, establish an emergency relief fund, and to use funds collected for dams to tackle the virus.
The petitioners claimed that the government’s response has been lackluster as it had failed even at such an early stage of the outbreak.
“This global epidemic poses an unprecedented threat to the fundamental rights of the public at large, including, but not limited to, the right to essential healthcare, the right to earn a livelihood, the right to enjoy equal protection of law, the right to freedom of movement and assembly, the right to trade, the right to receive information, the right to education, and all in all, the right to a dignified and free existence,” the petition stated.
“This pandemic disease, if not curbed urgently, possesses the capacity to destabilise the entire nation, resulting in unmatched physical, mental, economic, and social loss to the country,” it added.
The petition is one of a number of pleas being made to the government, the courts and any branch of the government to take the pandemic seriously as Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out a complete lockdown.
