‘Opposition should support govt’s efforts against coronavirus’

Showing her anger at the heads of two major opposition political parties for boycotting the parliamentary conference to devise a strategy to limit the coronavirus spread, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Nusrat Wahid said on Friday their act in the emergency crisis showed their non-seriousness about the pandemic.

Wahid, the PTI Sindh women wing’s former president, said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz head Mian Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari should attend the parliamentary conference and give their recommendations to the government on how to collectively fight against the pandemic because the entire nation was suffering from anxiety and fear.

She said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the federal government were determined to defeat the coronavirus spread in the country, and in this biggest global crisis in the living memory, every political party, civil society groups and residents should support the government’s efforts.

“We should put our political differences aside for a while and should join hands with the government to tackle the crisis,” the MNA said. Appreciating Prime Minister Khan for his announcement of a 12 billion rupees’ relief package, she said that the government had also reduced the petroleum product prices by Rs15. “A sum of Rs3,000 a monthly stipend has been allocated for the needy people. Similarly, a sum of Rs100 billion has been allocated for the export refund,” she said.

The ruling party’s MNA also said that Rs 50 billion had been allocated for medical workers and Rs25 billion had been earmarked for the purchase of necessary medical equipment and appliances.

“Taxes have been removed on commodities such as rice, pulses. A package of Rs100 billion has been allocated for the agriculture sector, which includes loans for farmers on easy terms, which will benefit the farmers and the nation,” she said.