Govt urged to set up Rs1tr fund to combat corona

ISLAMABAD: The government should immediately establish rupee one trillion fund to combat coronavirus and stimulate the economy. This is a serious situation which requires more than cosmetic moves, flowery speeches and routine assurances, said Shahid Rasheed Butt, Patron in Chief of Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST).

He said that the central bank should also come forward to play a role in saving collapsing economy which was already very fragile.

Shahid Rasheed Butt, who is also former president of the ICCI, said that the offers by World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international institutions are insufficient while the US pledged to provide one million dollars to fight coronavirus should be refused as it amounts to a joke. He said that federal and provincial governments did not learn any lesson from the crisis in China and continued the blame game, political point-securing.