Staff Reporter
Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser chaired a meeting of the Special Committee on Affectees of Coronavirus (Covid-19) at Parliament House, Islamabad to discuss the follow-up progress reports by the concerned departments on resolution of problems of corona affectees. The meeting was attended by Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Noor ul Haq Qadri, Minister of State for SAFRON Sheryar Khan Afridi and Secretaries of Ministries of Interior, Health, Foreign Affairs and Aviation Division.
Speaker Asad Qaiser in his opening remarks said that due to the spread of corona virus pandemic and its impact internationally, problems of stranded members of Tablighi Jamaat and Zayreen and prisoners detained in prisons in foreign countries appeared on Electronic, print and social media which were quite disturbing and caused panic amongst the public. He said that in view of the disturbing news of the difficulties faced by Pakistani abroad, he considered it appropriate to form a special committee that would take stock of the situation and find a solution to their problems. The Committee diligently discussed the problems of Tablighi Jamaat and Zayreen with their representatives, collected certified data and shared it with concerned departments. He further said that four provincial Chief Ministers, the CM of Gilgit-Baltistan and the PM of Azad Kashmir were also taken on board.
The Speaker said that the most important issue was maintaining an atmosphere of communal harmony and mutual trust and respect at the community level. He said that he had contacted all the scholars of all schools of thought and asked them for guidance, who had assured their all out support. The Speaker said that M/o Religious Affairs had been entrusted with the task of delivering the message of the Ulema through print, electronic and social media that the corona virus was a global issue and a disease that was to be tackled together. It was not due to any one individual or group, nor can it be solved at the individual level.