Coronavirus economic impacts: QWP seeks relief measures for people

PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said on Sunday the government and other stakeholders, including the political parties, would have to come up with a joint strategy to deal with Covid-19 outbreak as it was an international issue.

He expressed concern over the absence of any prior plan to create awareness among the people about the spread of the virus. According to a statement issued from Watan Kor, he said that all the political parties would have to rise above the political divide to fight this pandemic.

Voicing concern over the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country, he said the government would have to make a joint national action plan to stem the spread of this deadly virus.

He stressed measures should be taken to minimize the effects of this disaster on the economy besides providing maximum relief to the people particularly the ones belonging to the downtrodden segments of the society.

Aftab Shrepao asked the federal government to announce Rs15 billion financial package for each province so that the federating units could arrange food and other necessary items for the poor people in all the districts. The QWP leader urged the government to provide maximum relief to the people by fixing the POL products’ prices at Rs60 in the wake of the record decrease in rates of the petroleum products at the international level.

He said the government should consider giving relief to the people in the gas and electricity bills as the measures put in place to defeat the coronavirus had hit the people economically.

The QWP chief added the government should take precautionary measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Aftab Sherpao stressed that the government should provide testing kits to the provinces in addition to arranging the protective gears and other necessary equipment for the hospitals including ventilators. He added that the testing kits should also be made available to the district headquarters hospitals. The QWP chief stressed the need for ensuring the availability of all the food items in the market. He asked the government to provide the April salary to the government employees well in time. Aftab Sherpao requested the people to avoid holding unnecessary gatherings and said that the people should exercise social distancing to avoid spreading the virus.