Observer Report
Islamabad
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday emphasised the need for a uniform national policy to deal with the coronavirus, saying that the provinces and the federation were not separate from one another.
Qureshi requested the provinces to put forward their recommendations to the national coordination committee rather than taking decisions separately. “Those recommendations which can be implemented will be considered by the federal government and will be implemented,” said Qureshi.
The foreign minister regretted that people were not taking the coronavirus seriously. He highlighted the fact that Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah had appealed to the people to stay in isolation for three days but they did not pay heed to his request. “We are appealing to the people to take this matter seriously. It is this century’s biggest pandemic challenge,” said the foreign minister. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, in a statement regarding the rapidly changing situation of the country due to the global coronavirus pandemic, said that each individual must act responsibly in the face of the deadly and fast-spreading virus.
Qureshi added that all instructions being disseminated to the nation are for their own individual and collective wellbeing and should be followed religiously. “A lot of European countries are suffering due to the doubts and non-seriousness shown towards the virus,” said FM Qureshi.
“Italy, France, America, Britain, Germany among others have suffered and their examples are for the world to learn from.”
“I got to talk to the German ambassador in Pakistan over the phone yesterday, I was told that 20,000 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the country.” FM Qureshi said that the country and its nationals must take extreme caution and take the threat of the deadly pathogen very seriously.
Talking about the Sukkur quarantine centre fiasco, FM Qureshi said that the people broke out of quarantine centres and could’ve possibly endangered the lives of many healthy suspects who were yet to contract the virus.
The foreign minister stressed on a united effort by all the authorities concerned and people along with the provincial, federal governments on the matter. Qureshi said that the federal government can’t remain isolated during times where provincial governments are seriously mulling lockdowns in their regions.
FM Qureshi also revealed that almost 200 thousand overseas Pakistanis were currently stranded at various airports or are willing to fly back to their native lands from their current places of residence.
The foreign minister also made a revelation that Pakistan is not prepared to house an influx of patients in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in isolated quarantine centres and yet against implored the people to take the threat presented by the virus with extreme seriousness.
