The Government College University Lahore Economic Society held a webinar on the topic of “Smart Lockdown and its Impacts” which was addressed by Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry.
Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Asghar Zaidi moderated the webinar which was also attended a large number of students and faculty members through Zoom application.
In his address, Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the complete lockdown was not possible in countries where there had been no system of social protection. “Pakistan has witnessed the peak of Covid-19 cases in June last month, as mentioned earlier by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and now there is a steep decline of almost 40 percent in cases,” he added.
The federal minister said that if you looked at the minutes of the meetings of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), you would find that almost all the decisions regarding opening of different sectors and industries were taken with 99.9 percent consensus.
Fawad Chaudhry said from masks to ventilators, Pakistan had been importing all protective gears and medical supplies from China when the first case of coronavirus was reported back in February 2020.
“But now, the situation has completely changed and we are making almost all protective gears and medical equipment and soon Pakistan would start exporting the ventilators to other countries of the world,” the minster added.
The federal minister appreciated that GCU provided a data management mechanism to NCOC which helped them. He stressed a need for a study that which kind of human resource Pakistan would need in the future. He also responded to queries of students and faculty members.
In reply to question, the minister said this year Eid-ul-Adha would be held on July 31, 2020, and advised the people to strictly observe SoPs for their own protection and safety of their loved ones.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr Asghar Zaidi said that they had started this series of webinar to bridge a connection between policy-makers and academia. He appreciated the hard work of Mr. Fawad Chaudhry in the Ministry of Science and Technology that has resulted in tangible and beneficial results.
The Vice Chancellor also discussed the concerns of students regarding stability and spread of internet in the country. GCU faculty deans Prof. Dr Adnan Ahmad, Prof. Dr Sultan Shah and Prof. Dr Raiz Ahmad also attended the webinar alongside members of Economics Society.
