Daily Times

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan Sunday advised people to adopt precautionary measures against coronavirus. Talking to a private news channel, she asked the people not to be scared of coronavirus but fight against it.

She said all stakeholders were united to curb and prevent the spreading of this pandemic.

The SAPM said, “Awareness is the best solution to control the coronavirus while Information Ministry would launch a public awareness campaign to educate the people in that regard.” Replying to a question, she strongly condemned the Jung group’s baseless propaganda against the government saying that the government had given a lot of advertisements to the group. Separately, Firdous said the world bodies must be allowed in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir for containment and relief efforts, after coronavirus cases reported there. “The World Health Organization, the United Nations and other relevant institutions must be given access to Kashmir so that they can play their due role to protect Kashmiris’ right to life,” Dr Firdous said in a series of tweets which she made in the backdrop of Sunday’s SAARC video conference hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was a key forum to discuss the matters of mutual interests of the people in the region. “It is high time the forum played its real role,” she added.

Dr Firdous said the joint efforts by the SAARC states could yield positive results in dealing with the pandemic which would eventually help protect a major chunk of world’s population from Covid-19 disease. She said Pakistan’s participation in SAARC video moot manifested that the country shared the concerns and was equally worried for the people living in the entire region. She said, on behalf of Prime Minister Imran Khan, his special assistant on health Dr Zafar Mirza had apprised SAARC members about the steps taken by Pakistan to contain the virus which had also been acknowledged by the WHO. She also said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally supervising the steps taken to overcome coronavirus in the country. In a series of tweets, the SAPM said the government has taken these measures to cope with the international challenge of corona in the interest and for protection of people of Pakistan. She said these measures were also being acknowledged by World Health Organization(WHO) as endorsed by its country representative. Firdous Ashiq Awan expressed the hope that the virus will be defeated with national harmony and solidarity. She said it is difficult time but the nation will come out of it successfully.