Daily Times

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday termed the government’s coronavirus economic package ‘grossly insufficient’ and ‘vague’, and called for inclusion of the strategy and implementation mechanism presented by Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif.

This was agreed in a unanimous resolution passed at a video-link meeting chaired by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, with 293 party members in presence.

The meeting deliberated in detail over the situation of the pandemic outbreak in the country. The meeting maintained that the government has made a mess of a single quarantine center in Taftan, adding that the ‘criminal negligence’ at Taftan has single handedly jeopardized the lives of the entire nation. It warned that considering the ‘sheer incompetence’ of the government, there is high likelihood that these quarantine facilities can become festering grounds for the virus. These facilities can only hold a maximum of five thousand people which is grossly insufficient, the meeting opined.

“The meeting also doubted the intent and sincerity of the government regarding utility stores considering PTI’s track record over the sugar and wheat crisis. It warned that could be another scam to profit PTI’s blue eyed at the time of crisis,” according to a statement issued by the party after the meeting.

“They pointed out that procurement of wheat is a normal practice of every government and adding that to the package is petty and cheeky. The meeting also slammed the Rs 15 reduction in patrol prices while pointing out that the cost of oil in the global market has plummeted so low that the government must bring down the price of gasoline to Rs 70 at least,” it said.

“The meeting called out the intentional ambiguity left by the government regarding the Rs 200 billion set for labourers and pointed out that it has not been clarified that what proportion of this amount will be given by the federal government and what amount by the provinces. Neither has PTI mentioned a date nor has the government defined a mechanism for the distribution of this amount,” the statement read. “The meeting called out the government’s move of allocating Rs 100 billion for the industrial sector as part of coronavirus package, and mentioned that this is the payment by the government already pending to the industrial sector which has been listed in the package to inflate the figures,” the statement said. “The meeting also criticized Rs 50 billion for medical workers as a blatant lie as there have been no details and mechanism of imbursement, and instead demanded an immediate doubling of the salary of all medical staff and doctors,” it added. The meeting demanded that all taxes over import of food in any form from abroad must be lifted with immediate effect. Regarding the Rs 100 billion emergency fund, the meeting termed it an ‘eyewash’, wondering if the amount is available for use, why it is not being used to import ventilators. They also slammed the allocation of Rs 25 billion to the NDMA at this stage, adding that they should have imported testing kits and ventilators back in January. The meeting stressed that despite extensive cooperation and proactive contribution by the opposition to the government amid pandemic crisis, the ‘conduct; of the prime minister at the consultative parliamentary meeting is ‘unacceptable’. The meeting also passed a second resolution extending condolences with the families of those who have been killed by the pandemic and also called for a national civil award for Dr Usama who laid his life while fighting with the disease while serving his country.