STAFF REPORT
Unlike the perception about the differences between federal and provincial governments pertaining to dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Interior has not only been coordinating with the provincial authorities but also sharing the data on short notices of people traveling to Pakistan from the countries where the COVID19 had widespread . As per the information available with this scribe that the MoI has been coordinating with all the home departments. Consequently, all Home Departments including that of 4 provinces, territories of AJ&K, GB, and ICT requested for deployment of Army under Article 245 of the Constitution and Section 131A of Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, which were placed before the cabinet / federal government for approval in this meeting scheduled on 24th March 2020. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, MoI has taken a number of steps with regard to sealing of the Western as well as Wahga border of Pakistan for an initial period of 14 days as decided in national security committee meeting on 13th march 2020 and extension for another period of 14 days. In addition to this, special initiatives have also been taken by the Secretary Interior regarding sensitization for the closure of Excise & Taxation offices, public dealing at property offices, beauty parlours and saloons in ICT, after which the Cabinet Division revised the office timings and made important decisions with respect to the Federal Secretariat. Moreover, Ministry for Interior has also devised special strategy on the instructions of Minister for interior including identification of essential staff for important tasks, Employees over 50 years of age allowed to work from home, Employees with illness (flu, fever, etc) or facing health challenges allowed to work from home, Female staff (with children) allowed to work from home and closure of all public service delivery offices for public dealing
