Daily Times

A day after National Assembly session, opposition parties in the Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday again grilled the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over what they said insufficient and unclear response to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

“Today, the country is confronting severe challenges while the PM unable to even attend National Assembly or Senate session,” PPP’s Parliamentary Leader in Senate Sherry Rehman questioned while addressing the Upper House. “This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that we are fighting a pandemic of this nature but PM’s words of unity and healing are missing along with his presence in the parliament,” she said. “What is keeping him so busy that he cannot attend the sessions? Is the parliament irrelevant, because this is the message he is giving? Who is running the country if he is missing? Why has the CCI not met yet? Like the missing person, there is a missing policy. He needs to be here sharing his plan of action because what is more important than forging unity for your people,” she added.

“Provinces have been told to fend for themselves. Even though they are self-sufficient, they are not the State. The need of the hour is to come together and form a uniformed strategy to tackle this situation, as it is not possible for a province alone to tackle an issue of this magnitude alone,” she maintained. “Provinces should not be feeling isolated and left on their own. 18th Amendment is being used to hide federal government’s incompetency and provinces are being told to do their own thing. But 18th Amendment has nothing to do with this. We can all sit down and discuss this matter but now is not the time to create such distractions,” she added.

Addressing the House, Opposition Leader in Senate Raja Zafar-ul-Haq said that the government should have taken a lead in summoning an in-person session, but the opposition had to requisition it. “During such times, opinion is sought from the institutions such as the parliament,” he said, and lamented that the government, instead of consulting the opposition to find solutions against the pandemic, did not bother to even approach them. He condemned the statements implying that the novel coronavirus was developed in a lab in Wuhan. He also thanked China for its assistance to Pakistan at this difficult time.

PML-N’s Senator Javed Abbasi bashed the government for not ‘taking the parliament in confidence’. He regretted that the prime minister had not attended the NA session a day before and did not appear in the Upper House either. “When [government] does not take parliament in confidence, matters go to Supreme Court,” he said, and criticised the government for lifting the lockdown at a time when the virus is spreading at a faster rate. He said that the government started holding meetings when it was already too late. He expressed concerns that the country’s healthcare system may not be able to cope with an increasing number of cases.

PML-N’s Senator Musadiq Malik said that by lifting the lockdown, the government is moving towards ‘herd immunity’. “It means that after 60-70pc are infected and many people are dead, those who have survived will turn the wheel of the economy. But graveyards do not have an economic wheel,” he told the Senate.

JI Senator Mushtaq Khan said that the government cannot go on a ‘solo flight’, adding that no country in the world has shown such ‘non-seriousness’ in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic as Pakistan had done. He said that the quarantine centre in Taftan was not a camp but a ‘barn’.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also addressed the House, where he responded to the criticism, saying that there is no ‘confusion’ in the country as stated by Senator Sherry Rehman. He said the policy is clear and a national strategy has already been devised, adding that Sindh’s input is also part of the policy regarding the pandemic. “There is an impression being given that the only solution to the coronavirus is imposing lockdown but it is incorrect,” he opined.

In response to questions regarding the premier’s absence, he said that Imran Khan is in Islamabad and chairs a session daily on the virus-related issues. He said that the National Coordination Committee also includes Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah. “In a parliamentary democracy, the importance of the parliament cannot be eschewed,” he stated, adding that the government summoned a session of the National Assembly, which was meant at listening to the opposition’s views. 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.