Daily Times

Senator A. Rehman Malik on Thursday urged the government to impose curfew throughout the country in the wake of the Coronavirus as mere lockdown is not the solution. He stressed that the lockdown does not ensure complete disconnection of the people but a real curfew will create the desired disconnect.

In his statement, Senator A. Rehman Malik said that the outbreak of Coronavirus is a national security issue and no one should play politics and blame game over it as it is a matter of human lives. He expressed his concerns that in the coming weeks we all will be in danger due to the spread of Coronavirus. He said that we need to disconnect and isolate the Coronavirus infected people from healthy people but just lockdown is not a solution because by lockdown the people to people contact is not being disconnected. He emphasized that the Coronavirus will not end without a full and tighten curfew to break its life-cycle from further multiplications. He affirmed that if not today, the government will have to impose curfew tomorrow so its further delay will be more dangerous and damaging.

Senator A. Rehman Malik said that as Chairman, he convened an emergency meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on February 27, 2020, to advise the government to take timely preventive measures against the potential spread of Coronavirus as that time only two cases in the country were reported. He added that in the said meeting he had urged the government to prepare a comprehensive National Action Plan against Coronavirus and take timely preventive and remedial measures.

He said that the government was cautioned that the coronavirus could spread in Pakistan after its outbreak in China and Iran. He said that the committee had issued instructions for setting up screening test and isolation centers at all the airports and other entry points and had suggested that every passenger should be tested and quarantined upon entering Pakistan. He said that the Interior Committee had termed the Coronavirus outbreak as a National Security Issue and had asked the government to impose an urgent medical emergency in the country in both of its meetings held on February 27th and March 6th. He said that he has advised the Prime Minister to convene a meeting of Chief Ministers of four Provinces to formulate a joint strategy against Coronavirus.

Senator Rehman Malik said that the committee had prepared a 30-point plan containing preventive measures and had sent it to the federal and provincial governments to implement it to control Coronavirus in the first phase before it spread countrywide. He also said that the situation would have been different and far better today if the government had taken timely action against the spread of Coronavirus soon after its outbreak in China and Iran and had followed the committee’s suggestions.

He said in the second meeting of the committee on March 6, Committee had proposed to close all educational institutions across the country and had asked the government to hand over the designated civil hospitals to the Army Medical Corps. He said that a senior PPP colleague opposed and asked: “why I have asked Army for help”. He added that his response was that he did not call for Martial law nor ask the Indian Army for help but the own Army Medical Corps to assist civil hospitals to do the tests and treatment of virus victims to combat this deadly disease collectively. He said, “I thank the Chief of Army Chief for his accouchement of full support to the civil hospitals”. He said that in these difficult times, we have to fight against the hidden enemies by consensus. He also said that our Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari extended the hand of help to PM Imran Khan but the country did not see the desired level of response from the government.