KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday said that doctors’ opinion on the coronavirus situation is of utmost importance and governments and concerned authorities should formulate their policies in light of the views of medical professionals.
He said this while talking to a delegation of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) that called on him at Bilawal House on Sunday to apprise him about the problems being faced by doctors and paramedics across the country.
Bilawal hailed doctors for playing an effective role in the fight against coronavirus. He said that doctors and paramedical staff are the real heroes and their valiant role in protecting lives during coronavirus attacks would never be forgotten by the nation.
On Friday, Bilawal had lashed out at the federal government for its repeated attempts to “sabotage efforts of creating a united front against coronavirus” and unwarranted criticism of the Sindh government.
In a press conference, the PPP chief had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had disappointed the entire nation during this pandemic, which had exposed the incompetence of the federal government.
“Prime minister and his spokespersons are attacking Sindh and its people day and night,” Bilawal had said.
“He undermines the efforts of the healthcare workers, doctors and law enforcement personnel, who are fighting the virus on the front line. He questions the work of Sindh’s ministers and subjects them to character assassinations,” he had added.
The PPP chief had said that if the PM could not support the Sindh government then the least he could do was to not undermine its directives to people about staying at home.
He had further stated that the Sindh government was treating coronavirus patients with its own resources, as the Centre did not provide any help whatsoever. “The Centre has disappointed every province. They did not provide adequate facilities to the government of Balochistan at Taftan border, neither advised the Punjab government to take precautionary measures during the Raiwind gathering,” he had added.
Bilawal had said that if Imran Khan wants to remain the prime minister of only Islamabad, then fighting this pandemic would be very difficult. “God forbid, Karachi would suffer the same fate as New York,” he had said.
“They also let down the Punjab government by not warning them about the Raiwind Ijtima. They did not take any practical steps to protect those who participated and later did not support the provinces in tracing the participants. The federal government caused harm to all the provinces by not playing its proper role in the Raiwind Ijtima,” he had added.
Referring to the premier’s speech in which he had said that the “elite” imposed the lockdown after they realised that the virus had affected the rich as well, Bilawal had questioned who those “elites” were.
“The decision to extend the lockdown was taken in a meeting at the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC). It was based on recommendations by Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the announcement was made by a federal minister. Who then are these elites the prime minister talks about?” he had questioned.
