ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday appealed to the people of the country to spend the holy month of Ramzan praying five times at home to protect themselves from coronavirus.
Speaking to the media in the federal capital, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s logic and reasoning to change the restrictions which were already in place is beyond comprehension. He said that for the first few weeks, the lockdown went relatively well and the people were abiding by the restrictions. Only five members of mosque staff were allowed to offer prayers and people were urged to pray at home, he added.
“Then PM Imran eased some restrictions including barber shops and tailors in the country so it was difficult to convince the people to follow the same restrictions about prayers. Before the easing of restrictions, they were cooperating and there was no need to ease those restrictions. However, now the premier is justifying his decision and risking the lives of the people,” he said.
The PPP chief said that Sindh was the first province to impose the lockdown and the provincial government had engaged the religious community because “we do not have the capacity or police to stop congregational prayers in the mosques because mixed messages are coming from the federal government”.
“We are still trying to engage the religious community but it is now difficult when the PM is making an issue about freedom,” he added.
Bilawal said that this is a “colossal failure of leadership”.
“When we compare ourselves to the rest of the Muslim world like Saudi Arabia, Iran and others, they are taking steps to save the lives of their citizens. This is not the time for populous electoral decisions. It is time to take decisions on the advice of doctors and health experts. Doctors of Pakistan from Lahore to Karachi are protesting or holding press conferences appealing to take those necessary steps to protect them and ease the burden on our healthcare system,” he said.
He also said that the federal government has the responsibility of running the economy and now it has also the responsibility of protecting the lives and health of the people and securing their livelihood. It was ironic that the first relief package by the federal government was for the construction sector instead of doctors and nurses who risk their lives every single day, he added.
The PPP chief said that Pakistan would regret not spending a higher ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health. Whenever the PPP came to power, it drastically increased the spending on healthcare, he added.
Bilawal said that he was not only worried for Pakistan but also for other developing countries as well. “During the last decade, from United States to India, we witnessed flirtation with nationalistic popularism and partisanship and moving away from multilateralism,” he said.
He further said that the global community was not prepared to deal with such a pandemic and unfortunately, Pakistan did not forge national unity required to fight this pandemic.
