ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus will be held in Islamabad on Monday with National Assembly Speaker (NA) Asad Qaiser in the chair.
According to a press release, Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar will brief the committee about the impact of lockdown due to COVID-19 and immediate steps required to protect the economy with particular reference to the industrial sector.
Likewise, the adviser to prime minister on commerce will brief the committee about effect of the lockdown with reference to trade and commercial activities in the country.
The committee has also invited representatives of the business community to hear their perspective on the issue in hand besides getting their input for making appropriate recommendations to government for revival of economy affected by the COVID-19.
On April 20, during the last meeting of the committee, Sindh Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuho had warned the federal and provincial governments against disastrous consequences of relaxing the lockdown, arguing that the country was yet to hit the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
She had said that the predictive analysis suggests that the disease would reach its peak at the end of May. “Taking stock of the demographic situation, we would not be able to tackle the situation which could be disastrous if lockdown is relaxed,” she had added.
Dr Azra had said that there was a need for strict implementation of lockdown. “We should not be in a state of denial because speculation of immunity of Pakistanis against this disease is nothing but a myth. There is no immunity against the disease,” she had said and apprised the committee that despite inadequate medical facilities and increasing number of cases, Sindh was trying its best to cope with the situation.
She had said that the situation may worsen in the coming weeks, therefore, strict lockdown should be observed to curb the local transmission of the virus.
The participants of the meeting had called for a unified policy on lockdown.
The NA speaker had urged members of all political parties to work together for a broad-based strategy to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
