Coordinated national response to COVID-19 demanded

Islamabad : Chairman, Senate Foreign affairs Committee and Pakistan-China Institute, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed hosted an all parties Webinar on ‘Confronting Coronavirus & Pakistan-China relations’ in which eight different political parties participated, says a press release.

This online video conference was the first event of its kind held in Pakistan since the outbreak of corona virus crises which focused on ‘Confronting coronavirus: Pakistan China relations, CPEC and impact on global order’.

The two-hour long conference was participated by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Azam Khan Swati (PTI), Deputy Chairman Senate, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla (PPP), Senator Usman Kakar (PKMAP), Senator Anwar ul Haq Kakar (BAP), Senator Talha Mehmood (JUI-F), Senator Sitara Ayaz (ANP) and Senator Mushtaq Ahmed (JI)The participants were also given presentation by the Executive Director Pakistan-China Institute, Mustafa Hyder Sayed giving details about the assistance provided by Pakistan to China and China to Pakistan during this crisis.

According to the fact sheet, Pakistan sent a special transport plane to china on February 1, 2020 sending valuable medical supplies including masks, at the time when there was a big shortage of such masks in China.

On February 10, 2020 Senator Mushahid Hussain sponsored a resolution in the Pakistan Senate, which was unanimously passed, expressing solidarity with China and a few days later the a similar resolution has been passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan and the Pakistan parliament was the first parliament to express such solidarity with China on the coronavirus crisis.

Pakistan is one of the few countries not to evacuate its nationals out of China, including the students at Wuhan which showed Pakistan’s confidence and trust in China’s ability to take care of our nationals “as their own”.

On March 16-17, President Alvi specially flew to China to express Pakistani Nation’s solidarity with China, a gesture which was appreciated by President Xi Jinping and entire Chinese people. The fact sheet also mentioned the air lift from China to Pakistan beginning March 25, which included 2 million face masks, 70,000 medical protective equipment, 100,000 testing kits, 217 ventilators plus a $4 million emergency medical grant from China to Pakistan to build a special hospital for corona virus patients.

In his opening remarks, the host, Senator Mushahid Hussain said that the coronavirus crisis had strengthened the Pakistan-China Friendship and solidarity because like other previous crises China again had stood by Pakistan firmly like a rock. Talking about the impact of the crises of global order, he said that Asian countries like China, South Korea and Singapore have shown quality leadership as well as the efficiency of their medical and healthcare system as opposed to Western countries and in this regard China has shown leadership during this global pandemic, as the Chinese doctors are working in Asian Countries like Pakistan as well as European countries like Italy and Spain.

Senator Mushahid Hussain welcomed the announcement by the Prime Minister on Thursday that the CPEC projects will be restarted on top priority because, he said that CPEC like Kashmir issue & the nuclear programme enjoys national consensus above party lines as CPEC is the guarantor of the progress and prosperity of the people of Pakistan.

Senator Mushahid Hussain also demanded of the government t announce National Health Emergency to cope with the crisis so that all resources and institutions are utilized for this one-point agenda.

Senator Azam Swati said that so far only 17,000 Pakistanis have been tested for Coronavirus out of which approximately 2,300 were found to be positive.

Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said that while the government has been little slow in responding as we were “unprepared”, he referred to the fact that at his own initiative 2000 testing kits were imported early on.

Senator Sitara Ayaz underlined the need for creating more awareness about the coronavirus since this was lacking, and she said that the situation in provinces was ‘pretty bad’ and there was need to ensure food supplies for the needy and the poor.

Senator Usman Kakar paid tribute to Dr. Osama, the first shaheed of Coronavirus. He especially focused on the needs of his province, Balochistan, where he said 71% people were living below the poverty line.

Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that the biggest need of the hour was to prepare a National Action Plan which should have a collective, coordinated and comprehensive response. He said that there is only one testing Lab in entire province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which has the capacity to only do 700 tests per day.

Senator Talha Mehmood appreciated China saying “They are taking good care of Pakistani nationals and people to people contact” is the core of Pakistan-China time tested friendship.”

Senator Anwar ul Haq Kakar said that we are lucky that clusters like the pilgrims from Iran and Tableegi Jamat have been identified which can then be tested. He also urged the need to test 900,000 persons who entered Pakistan after December 31, 2020.

At the conclusion of the Webinar, the political parties adopted a ‘joint open letter from political parties concerning closer international cooperation against COVID-19’, where they appreciated the role of China in “significant progress in epidemic prevention” and urged the ‘general public to comply with epidemic prevention as well as “fully leverage the strength of civil society organisations and volunteers” to combat the epidemic. The political parties also urged all countries to “put the lives, safety and health of the people above everything else” and they undertook to maintain ‘close communication for the purpose of injecting political energy to the global fight against Coronavirus’.

Finally, the open letter categorically stated that “we stand firmly against all discriminatory comments and practices against any country, region or ethnic group and any attempt to undermine the cooperation of countries to contain Coronavirus’. All political parties agreed to their proactive role, above any politics, to serve humanity through promoting awareness of the coronavirus crisis and to provide medical and food supplies to the people, especially the less fortunate ones, in this hour of need.