ISLAMABAD, May 14 (APP):Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan Thursday assured the Senate that the government would consider the valuable suggestions given by the lawmakers during the debate on COVID-19 strategy for more effective containment of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
“I assure the House on behalf of the government that very seriously, we will take all the good suggestions to the agencies concerned for deliberation,” he said while participating in the debate on COVID-19 strategy.
He said the government strategy to contain the spread of virus had remained successful so far, which was contrary to the predictions of international institutions including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and World Health Organization that in Pakistan there would be hunger and devastation on a large scale.
Dr Babar said it was a special blessing of Allah Almighty on Pakistan that despite limited resources, the food-chain remained completely intact in the country, while the situation in other COVID-19 affected countries including India was opposite.
He said the government had been following a moderate strategy, under which it sealed the affected areas and relaxed the lockdown restrictions, keeping in view the situation on ground.
The advisor said the crisis had not ended yet and underlined the need to devise a more prudent policy, focusing on the current phase and post COVID-19 situation.
He said it was for the first time that financial assistance had been distributed among the needy and COVID-19 affected people across the country in a transparent manner.
Commenting on opposition’s claims that the government was going to do something with the 18th constitutional amendment, he said in a categorical term that there was no such an amendment-bill on the government table.
He said the PTI believed in across the board accountability and assured that the government would not clip the wings of National Accountability Bureau, recalling that previous regimes had been using the accountability tool to screw opponents.
From the day one after the COVID-19 outbreak, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was concerned about daily wagers and ousted employees of private sector, who faced severe financial difficulties due to economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.
He said the government immediately launched the Ehsas Emergency Programme to mitigate financial sufferings of downtrodden segments of the society, adding that it was the hallmark of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government that no such scheme had been associated with anyone’s name.
