–PM Imran misses Senate session yet again as Opp continues criticism of govt’s anti-coronavirus measures
–Senate passes unanimous resolution condemning ‘baseless propaganda’ against China over Covid-19 outbreak
ISLAMABAD: The government and opposition continued with their blame game on Thursday as the Senate continued the debate on the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who skipped the earlier sessions of both the Houses, was absent from Thursday’s session as well.
Addressing the House, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said the government has always taken all provinces on board while taking decisions.
Responding to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s criticism of the government, Faraz asked the opposition to appraise the government regarding their “parallel strategy”.
“Does the opposition have their own strategy?” the minister asked. “Do they want a curfew to be imposed? Why did they not participate in the session when they called it?”
Faraz told the opposition to answer the questions rather than claiming to be a “political victim”.
The information minister also said the federal government had provided every province with personal protective equipment (PPE) to tackle the virus and added that the federal government wants to facilitate daily wagers affected by the pandemic on a top priority.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan had announced a relief package for the daily wagers despite the country having limited resources,” he said.
Regretting the absence of Prime Minister Imran Khan from the session, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan said that it was “very unfortunate” that the premier “did not fulfill his responsibilities” during the health crisis.
The PML-N, which is critical of Prime Minister Imran’s Covid-19 approach, has time and again accused the government of rejecting opposition’s help in dealing with the crisis.
Senator Mushahid recalled that his party’s president Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had offered the government help in dealing with the crisis.
“Ask Shehbaz, ask Bilawal, ask Sirajul Haq. They are ready to help,” he said, adding: “Even [JUI-F chief] Fazlur Rehman said that 40,000 volunteers from his party were ready to help with coronavirus relief efforts […] but the government rejected the offer.”
He criticised the government for not having a national strategy. “[The government] says we hold meetings every day. Where are the decisions from those meetings?” he questioned.
Mushahid also questioned the timing of controversy surrounding the National Commission on Minorities, saying the government “couldn’t spare the issue during the pandemic”.
“Why is Noorul Haq Qadri (religious affairs minister) talking about these things [now]?” he asked.
“We can compromise on everything except our faith. I request the government to protect our faith. Put them [Ahmadis] in the minority commission but they must admit that they are non-Muslims,” he said.
In response, Faraz advised the opposition not to raise sensitive issues that would hurt the nation’s sentiments as the country is in need of unity and not division during this difficult time.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Mohsin Aziz claimed that the reason behind fewer coronavirus cases in Pakistan is due to the current government’s strategy.
“The government’s efforts should be appreciated,” Aziz said. “Pakistan is dealing with the pandemic with limited resources. Even developed countries are helpless in the wake of the deadly virus.”
He said that the opposition had called a special Senate session to insult the government rather than giving suggestions on how to deal with the health crisis.
Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Senator Mohammad Usman Khan Kakar said conspiracies against the 18th Amendment have been going on for a “long time”.
“The government is unhappy as the people [provinces] were being empowered, the 18th Amendment gave the provinces equal powers in some areas,” the senator said.
Speaking about the government’s anti-Covid-19 measures, Kakar claimed that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has not provided “even one ventilator” to Balochistan. He said there was a shortage of testing kits in the province, adding that there was only one laboratory in the country.
“People have to wait for 15 days to receive their test results,” he said.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Senator Sirajul Haq called out the Centre and Sindh government for failing to unite to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
Regretting that the two were fighting each other instead of the pandemic, Haq said that it was a “moment of reflection” when the national leadership was unable to “come on the same page even in the face of such a serious pandemic”.
The senator also chided the government for exorbitant rates of Covid-19 tests. “A coronavirus test costs Rs9,000 [but] you have paid poor people only Rs3,000. Do they feed themselves or get tested?” he questioned.
He added that the government should have included free testing in its relief package.
PPP Senator Rehman Malik called on the House to pass a resolution that poor people will be tested for the disease free of cost. “They have the foremost right to get tested,” he said.
Malik expressed reservations about the number of coronavirus cases in the country, claiming that according to calculations he made in conjunction with doctors, Pakistan has at least 800,000 cases.
Another PPP senator, Rubina Khalid, said that more than 100 doctors at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital have been infected by the coronavirus because of “government negligence”.
She said that frontline workers needed “weapons” to fight such as protective gear and questioned the government’s strategy for doing so.
PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed said that the government’s message to the people regarding the epidemic lacked clarity, saying “it’s not the messenger but the message” which is problematic.
Syed said: “As a former journalist and information minister, I will give a few words of advice to the government because I think that we are all in the same boat. The message from the start should have been that this outbreak is bigger than one party, one leader and one government.”
He added that every crisis was an opportunity and urged the federal government to declare a national health emergency, announce a political ceasefire and redefine national security to include health emergencies.
RESOLUTION IN CHINA’S FAVOUR:
The Senate also adopted a bipartisan resolution rejecting “baseless propaganda” against China for its alleged role in the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic which has so far affected over 4.4 million people the world over.
The resolution, introduced by Senate Opposition Leader Raja Zafarul Haq, thanked China for its support to Pakistan and for the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits as well as other medical assistance.
