Daily Times

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday called upon the international community to consider writing off loans for developing countries such as Pakistan in order to ensure resource allocation to fight coronavirus outbreak.

“The UN SG has highlighted the message of Global Solidarity and focusing on protecting most vulnerable,” the foreign minister said in a tweet. “I reiterate PM’s call for alleviating this financial burden to protect the most vulnerable already struggling to cope with the challenge with limited resources & infrastructure to fight this pandemic (Covid-19),” he posted on his Twitter handle.

The foreign minister said alleviating this financial burden will help protect the most vulnerable and already struggling to cope with the challenge with limited resources and infrastructure to fight this COVID-19 pandemic. “PM Imran Khan has also underscored the importance of relieving the burden of debt-ridden developing countries in order to ensure resource allocation for saving lives and stemming eco decline,” he said. “The UN SG has highlighted the msg of Global Solidarity & focusing on protecting most vulnerable. PM Imran Khan has also underscored the imp of relieving the burden of debt-ridden developing countries in order to ensure resource allocation for saving lives & stemming eco decline,” he tweeted.

Earlier on March 17, in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Prime Minister Imran Khan had expressed concern over the devastating impact the virus might have on economies of developing countries. He had said if a serious outbreak happened in the country, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s efforts to lift the economy out of collapse would begin ‘an unstoppable slide backwards’. “Exports would fall off, unemployment would soar and an onerous national debt would become an impossible burden,” he had added, maintaining that Pakistan did not have the capability and resources to deal with the novel coronavirus.

Also on Saturday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that focal persons have been designated at the Pakistan embassies and missions across the world for prompt dispersal of information over the coronavirus. Chairing a meeting of the Crises Management Unit set up at the Foreign Office via video link, the minister said these focal persons have been in constant contact with the unit.

The cell was established in the ministry of foreign affairs on emergency basis after the coronavirus was declared as pandemic, a press release said.

The foreign minister further directed embassies and missions of Pakistan across the globe to further enhance their contacts with the Pakistani communities living in different countries. He said that the unit will operate on 24/7 basis during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Crisis Management Unit is in close contact with various institutions of the country for compiling essential information and timely sharing them with the Pakistani missions and officials, so that on the basis of such information, effective mechanism could be reached to confront the coronavirus challenge.