Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday addressed the Senate which is discussing the situation arising out of coronavirus pandemic and expressed optimism to collectively surmount the challenge posed by the virus. Addressing the Upper House, the foreign minister said the national strategy against the contagion has been chalked out after taking inputs from all federating units. He said it is a national emergency and all the stakeholders will have to work collectively to defeat the virus which has engulfed the whole world. He further said that the National Coordination Committee and National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has been established to accommodate the inputs of the provinces. “The real solution is a vaccine but that will take time. Until the real solution comes, we have to see how we can control the spread of the virus,” he said. Notably, markets across the country were teeming on Monday after opening up for the first time in over a month as the nationwide lockdown was eased despite a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections. The government announced last week that it would begin a phased lifting of the lockdown because of the effect it was having on the economy and the workforce. Prime Minister Imran Khan last week justified easing the lockdown by saying: “We know we’re doing it at a time when our [infection] curve is going up … but it is not increasing [as fast] as we were expecting.” But he said the virus could run out of control if people did not take precautions. Qureshi criticised the opposition for implying that the government has replaced BISP with the Ehsaas Program. He said that the scope of BISP was limited and the government had expanded it by introducing the Ehsaas program. “BISP covered 4 million people while Ehsaas covers 12 million. Please do not try to fool people,” he said. He further said that the government has subsidised 19 items for utility stories and pointed out that Sindh will also benefit from the move.