Staff Reported
Islamabad
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Tuesday said that Pakistan had witnessed a decline in the Covid-19 cases.
Addressing a presser to brief on cabinet meeting chaired by the premier, the federal information minister said that the strategy had proved successful and Pakistan remained less affected by the virus than any other country globally.
He also lauded the role of National Command and Operation Centre and said that the country developed infrastructure to deal with Covid-19 on emergency basis and they have improved the number of testing labs to 129 from only two when the pandemic hit the country.
Shibli Faraz said that the virus cases had witnessed a surge after Eid ul Fitr and if precautionary measures were not adopted then it could see another rising trend after Eid-ul-Adha.
Even the prime minister has decided to celebrate upcoming Eid at home, he said and urged the masses to adopt it and avoid unnecessary outing during Eid-ul-Adha.
He said that the prime minister has directed Sania Nishtar to launch the second phase of the Ehsaas programme.
Speaking over pilots’ issue, he said that 28 Pakistan International Airlines pilots have been terminated from the service over dubious licenses and blamed that these recruitments were made during the PPP and PML-N era.
“We have already grounded all pilots who have dubious licenses,” he said vowed to take stern action against all PIA and CAA officials found guilty in the license matter.
He said that the cabinet was also briefed over the sugar inquiry report and the commerce minister informed that they have devised sugar reforms that would help in ensuring the supply of the commodity at lower prices.
A negative role of the competitive commission has emerged during the sugar and other crisis and we have decided to bring forward new people to make it more effective, he said.
The cabinet also discussed over change in the money laundering law to make it more effective.
Meanwile, Pakistan has confirmed 77 deaths in a single day by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 236,334. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 4,839 on Tuesday.
According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center 2,691 persons have been tested positive for Covid-19 in 24 hours.
Till now 97,626 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 82,669 in Punjab, 28,669 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10,841 in Balochistan, 13,557 in Islamabad, 1,587 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 1,383 in Azad Kashmir.
Another 42 people died of coronavirus in Sindh on Tuesday taking the provincial death toll to 1,614, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said.The province reported 1,388 new cases over the last 24 hours. Of them, 629 were from Karachi.
In Punjab, 706 new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections in the province to 82,669.
According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 15 more people died due to complications related to the virus, taking the death toll in the province to 1,899.
