Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshid on Tuesday apprised the Senate about the government strategy, being followed to contain the spread of novel coronavirus, in consultation with all federating units. Briefing the House, which convened it session after a break of almost 68-days due to the virus outbreak, he said a clear national strategy was in place without any ‘confusion’ to stem the virus spread. “However, the government is ready to incorporate all positives input, given by the opposition parties in the Senate, into the national strategy,” he said.
Declaring the COVID-19 an ‘unprecedented challenge,’ he said the government formed National Coordination Committee (NCC), National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) for taking collective decisions and effective implementations of the virus-preventive measures across the country. Qureshi said all stakeholders including provinces, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, had representation in the NCC and NCOC and their suggestions were given due importance and incorporated in the national strategy. The minister indicated that imposing lockdown was not a solution, but a part of the strategy to control the virus spread, and said “the complete solution is only to find the vaccine, which may take months, and even years.”
INP adds: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday stated in clear terms that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government doesn’t want to completely roll back the 18th Amendment. Speaking in the Senate, he said the government doesn’t aim to do away with the constitutional amendment but its ‘weak points should be reviewed and addressed.’ ‘We don’t have a two-thirds majority to bring any change, why are you afraid,’ the foreign minister said, pointing to opposition senators.
He took the opposition to task over criticism of the government for a delay in convening a session of the house, saying it was because of lack of consensus in the opposition that the session got delayed. Qureshi said even PPP’s Saleem Mandviwalla, the deputy chairperson of the senate, doesn’t support the move to call a session of the house, asking the party to first develop consensus in its own ranks. Speaking about the coronavirus situation, he hoped the country would succeed in its efforts to defeat the pandemic. ‘There is no doubt that uncertainty prevails because of the coronavirus.
Even stable economies [the world over] are reeling from the pandemic,’ the foreign minister pointed out, warning that a recession will follow the global health crisis. He predicted the global economy is going to shrink by 3 per cent. Defending the government’s decision to ease lockdown restrictions, he said 18 million people would have lost their jobs if the government had extended the lockdown. He said the country’s export witnessed a 40 per cent decline.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan holds meetings and give directions on a daily basis to cope with the current situation of Covid-19. He asked the opposition parties not to do politics on the pandemic. The foreign minister said the situation is very serious in occupied Kashmir. He said that the BJP government had intensified its persecution campaign in the occupied territory as the Indian forces have started barging into houses of Kashmiris and killing the innocent and armless Kashmiri people under the garb of coronavirus.
