Daily Times

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Sunday said that the Prime Minister has renewed his pledge of ensuring delivery of ration and food supplies to deserving poor families across the country at their doorsteps.

Briefing the media on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Core Committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, she said that the PM had trust in youth and wants to use the potential of the youth force volunteers in ensuring supply of food items to deserving people.

The SAPM said the prime minister will personally announce a comprehensive roadmap today (Monday) to ensure uninterrupted food supplies across Pakistan.

She said that the prime minister informed the committee that the country was passing through a difficult time and there was need of unity among the masses to overcome the challenge posed by this pandemic. She said Imran Khan urged the party leadership to stand by the people in testing times and play a proactive role in resolution of their problems.

Dr Firdous said that due to the ongoing lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, national economy was being affected and chain of daily use items was slowed down.

She said the prime minister advised minister for national food security to ensure availability of food items, including flour so that there should be no shortage of such items.

The SAPM said that there was no shortage of edible items in the country and the committee expressed the resolve to treat hoarders and profiteers with an iron hand.

Dr Firdous said that Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, during the briefing, informed the meeting that his government had allocated Rs 10 billion to provide Rs 4,000 financial assistance every month to 250,000 deserving people in the province through easy-paisa.

Those getting financial support from BISP would not be included in this list. She said that the CM also informed the meeting that eight new laboratories, equipped with state-of-the-art technology, were being set up across Punjab to enhance testing capabilities and ascertain actual number of coronavirus patients in the province. She said that the new labs will conduct coronavirus tests of 3,200 persons daily, and added that process for the recruitment of 10,000 doctors and paramedical staff has been started in the province.

It was also informed that in case any doctor or paramedic dies during performance of his duties, he would be given package as given to martyrs. She informed that one month’s salary as bonus would be given to doctors and paramedics, who would serve as frontline soldiers against coronavirus pandemic in the province.

She said that KP Chief Minister Mehmood Khan had informed that his government announced Rs 11.40 billion package for providing financial support to 1,900,000 deserving families in the province. She said that province had overall allocated Rs 32 billion to control the spread of the pandemic. The province has also given Rs 5 billion relaxation on taxes and duties to various sectors.

She said that the KP would provide additional Rs 2,000 to each of 1 million families getting financial support under Ehsas Programme. She said that the prime minister also made it clear that the packages announced by the federal government would also be extended to the provinces where PTI was not in power.

She said that any relief given by the federal government to the people of Punjab, KP and Balochistan would also be given to the people of Sindh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, as it was a time of national approach. She said that in the National Coordination Committee meeting, steps would be discussed to open supply of goods needed for opening industrial units and construction sector to save the poor labour class from starvation. She said a counter strategy was needed to save the labour class from unemployment.

She said that personal protection equipment had been provided to doctors and paramedical staff attending coronavirus patients in Islamabad, AJK and GB and the same would be provided to other provinces as soon as possible.