Punjab Governor Ch Sarwar has said the government successfully utilised all possible resources to tackle coronavirus pandemic and gained reasonable results.
In an interview with state-run official media on Thursday, the Governor said that the entire world including developed countries looked helpless to tackle COVID-19 even these nations had huge resources and their health sectors were far better equipped than the health sector in Pakistan.“These countries spend 20 to 30 per cent more funds on health than our country,” he added.
The governor said that the Punjab government was providing best treatment facilities to the coronavirus patients that were kept in different quarantine centers set up in Punjab including Expo Center Lahore, Kala Shah Kaku Lahore, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan,
He said the government along with the support of Ulemas,political leadership was able to tackle the pandemic. However, the government was giving Rs 12000 to each of 13 million people under Ehsaas Kafalat Programme and an amount of Rs 150 billion had been allocated for this purpose.
To a question, he said that trade deficit of 19 billion dollars was a big challenge but the government had successfully reduced the deficit by 73 per cent through effective policies which was a big achievement of the government.
“Economy is going on the right path now and all world financial institutions including IMF and the World Bank are appreciating the government policies,” he said. He said that an amount of Rs 25 billion had been given as subsidy on sugar in previous 4 to 5 years, whereas the incumbent government had given Rs 3 billion subsidy on sugar during its tenure so far.
“Investigation report on sugar scam has been published by the government without any change of even commas which is a success of the government,” he added. He said that credit of investigation on the sugar and flour scam went to Prime Minister Imran Khan as he had proved that everyone was equal and rule of law was important to him.
He said that as many as ten universities had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with solar companies which would reduce the cost of the solar energy by half of the total cost.
To another question, he said that more than 7000 doctors were voluntarily providing health guidance through telemedicine online helpline from which thousands of people were getting health guidance and crowd had been reduced in the hospitals due to this service.
He said that two dozens more telemedicine centers were being set up in Punjab ,adding that such centers would soon be opened in Balochistan, KPK, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. The World Health Organization, China and other health experts were agreed that telemedicine system was the best way to protect doctors from the coronavirus, he added.
The governor said that self-imposed isolation was the only solution to keep oneself safe from the coronavirus, adding that majority of the people were following the instructions giving by the government , however , some ignorant people were becoming carrier of the virus.
The governor appreciated the role of universities against COVID-19 as researchers had made sanitizers and Personal Protection Kits by their own in the universities. He said that the government realized that daily wagers, small shopkeepers and street hawkers were in trouble due to lockdown in the country.
To a question, he said that screening process of the prisoners for coronavirus was under progress across the province and the effected prisoners would be kept in quarantine.
The inmates were also provided with masks, soap and sanitizers.” he added.
