Zubair Qureshi
Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat deserves kudos for leading the team that made day-and-night efforts to bring down coronavirus cases from 300 daily to almost nill in Islamabad.
Containing the coronavirus in a cosmopolitan city that was receiving passengers from all parts of the globe almost daily before a global ban on flights was indeed a Herculean task.
But the Deputy Commissioner along with his team of magistrates and young officers not only took the bull by the horn but also defeated it by adopting a multi-pronged society. Even Two members of his team were infected during the surveillance of the international passengers but they didn’t let the pace slow down.
Because of this dedication and round-the-clock surveillance, Islamabad turned from the most-adversely hit by Covid-19 to the safest city and the Deputy Commissioner, District health officer and their teams won confidence of the residents of the city that fight against coronavirus was not only continuing but they were winning it.
There are very few officers who are equally popular with the ruling elite, media as well as the general public and Hamza Shafqat is one of those few.
While covering the coronavirus situation on a daily basis, this correspondent had a chance to interact with him almost daily and found him always more than ready to help, inform and guide whenever and whatever is required of him.
Not only coronavirus, making Islamabad plastic free, checking prices during the holy month of Ramazan, raids on hoarders, action against illegal storage of face masks and sanitizers—Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat is there behind all these people-friendly moves.
Like President Alvi, Hamza Shafqaat is also active on social media (twitter) and the public have easy access to him with regard to their grievances, concerns and complaints.
