Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Disease’s meeting held to assess country’s preparedness against pandemic

ISLAMABAD, Apr 06 (APP):Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Disease in its first meeting on Monday assessed country’s preparedness in the war against the deadly virus.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser here at the Parliament House.

The speaker told the meeting that the main objective of the committee was to give the priority to the inputs that would be obtained from the members of the Parliament and the recommendations of the committee would be forwarded to the government for implementation.

He added he had already issued directions to the National Assembly Secretariat for adopting the procedure to hold the meeting of standing committees by video links in future.

He further said a sub-committee of the main committee comprising Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (Convener) Senator Azam Khan Sawati, Leader of the House in Senate Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, senators Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, Mushahid Ullah Khan and Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and MNAs Shahida Akhter Ali and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to prepare detail of terms of reference (ToRs) of the committee and to examine the draft of rules of procedure for the Parliamentary Committee on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Disease.

The next meeting of the parliamentary committee would be held on April 9, he added.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chairman Lt. Gen Muhammad Afzal briefed the committee on coronavirus (COVID-19) and utilization of funds received by the government so far.

The NDMA chairman told the meeting about the steps taken by the government regarding said virus. He added that 39,000 kits had been provided to provinces and 137 hospitals were working with PCR Tests and kits in the country and 57, 000 kits had been received from China so far.

He further said more ventilators had been provided to Punjab. He said the government was in continued liaison with China for further deliveries of equipments.

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told in the meeting that there was a shortage of ventilators in the country and said committee should finalize the guidelines in respect of lockdown in the country.

Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the committee that recommendations of committee should not be duplicated and recommendations of the committee should be sent to the NSC for adequate action over them. As many as 35,000 tests had been conducted so far, he added.

Moulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali informed the committee that Chitral was free from coronavirus at present and asked the quarters concerned about the steps taken by the government for the provision of ventilators to their area.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Senator Azam Khan Swati said equipments should be sent directly to provinces and Hazara Region, separately adding tests being conducted by the Government were not sufficient.

Minister for Economic Affairs Hamad Azhar said the decisions were being made with consciences and funds were being utilized properly.

The meeting attended by Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti, Amir Haider Azam Khan, Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, Leader of the House in Senate Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, Senator Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Senator Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, Senator Sitara Ayaz, Senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, Senator Aurangzeb Khan, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Senator Azam Khan Swati, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Service, Regulations and Coordination Dr Zafar Mirza, NDMA Chairman Lt. Gen. Muhammad Afzal, Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hamad Azhar, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, Parliamentary Secretary on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Nausheen Hamid.

However, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Senator Sherry Rehman, Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo and Agha Hassan Baloch attended the meeting by Video Link. The meeting was also attended by officers of the ministries/divisions.