GB has lowest rate of corona victims in South Asia

ISLAMABAD: Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) has managed effective control over coronavirus pandemic with its own resources and it has succeeded in maintaining lowest rate of affected with virus not only in the country but in whole South Asia region.

The GB Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman has claimed that federal government hasn’t provided one-single rupee to his PML-N government for overcoming the pandemic. He said that three people from GB have lost their lives due to coronavirus including one doctor, one paramedic while one old man who had other serious ailments but died after developing corona.

The GB doctor was the first who sacrificed his life in whole South Asia while serving the corona patients. Talking to The News from Gilgit the chief minister said that three thousand people crossed the border from Taftan who reached GB. They were placed under quarantine after reaching GB in different hotels which were got vacated immediately. Hafiz Hafeez said that 286 people have been found infected from the virus and two hundred out of these recovered and they are leading now normal life. To a query he said that 3,400 tests have been carried out for corona in the area.

The chief minister revealed that all the four provinces have been given financial assistance out of the funds provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the government of Pakistan, but people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been deprived of the fiscal assistance despite several reminders.

He thanked former chief minister Punjab and President PML-N Shahbaz Sharif for his generous assistance who arranged ventilators, masks, test kits and other material on emergency basis for the people of GB through the PML-N and his own resources. He disclosed that when the federal government showed reluctance to help immediately after outbreak, he wrote a letter to the Chinese neighbouring province Xinjiang governor who generously dispatched huge consignment of emergency material including ventilators and test kits.

The judicious use of the available material could make it possible for the GB government to check spreading of the virus. He said that he has written letter of thanks to the Xinjiang governor and he is also indebted Chinese government that provide aide at the hour of need without wasting any time. The chief minister reminded that Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt. General Muhammad Afzal took personal interest in supplying some assistance recently when his attention was drawn toward the helplessness of the area. He thanked the general for the gesture who earlier had played important role for the well-being of area as the Commander/Chairman Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) during the building of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman reminded that experts have been warning about the second and even worse wave of pandemic next month and the federal government hasn’t released any fund for the rescue and helping mechanism which is already being provided to the other provinces. He said that the federal government must keep the sensitivity of the area in mind before evolving a strategy for eradicating the virus.

The chief minister is visiting far-flung areas of the GB traveling by road in hilly and difficult terrain on daily basis and asked the federal government to provide GB administration choppers for coping with any emergency.