ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior in its meeting on Thursday strongly condemned the continuous ceasefire violations by Indian forces at the Line of Control (LoC), targeting civilian population, sending spy drones inside Pakistani territory and killing of 35 Kashmiri youth in state violence against Muslims in India and Indian occupied Kashmir.
The committee expressed serious concerns over the rapid increase in positive cases of coronavirus and deaths across the country.
The committee offered fateha for those who have lost their lives, while combating Covid-19, and expressed sympathies with their bereaved families.
The committee also paid rich tribute to doctors, nurses, and paramedics, the Pakistan Army, police and other LEAs for serving the nation day and night in these difficult moments of pandemic.
Federal Minister for Narcotics Control Azam Khan Swati on behalf of the government highly applauded and recognized the efforts of Senator A Rehman Malik for his efforts to remove Pakistan's name from the FATF's Grey List.
He said that because of his tireless efforts, Pakistan received a relief of five months from the FATF in the most difficult time of pandemic. Implementation on 37-point anti-corona NAP.
At the start of the meeting, Senator Rehman Malik said that the committee had held an emergency meeting on February 27th, 2020 on coronavirus after assessing its spread in Pakistan soon after its outbreak in China and Iran, and had formulated a comprehensive 37-point Anti-Coronavirus National Action Plan well on time before it spread across the country.
He said that the 37-point Anti-Coronavirus National Action Plan included important measures starting from installation of screening facilities at all airports and entry points, handover of entry points to Army Medical Corps, quarantining of all incoming passengers, establishment of isolation centers, provision of personal protection equipment (PPEs) to doctors, nurses and also officials at airports, closing of educational institutes and others.
He said that during the lockdown, the committee continued its work and along with letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan about measures against coronavirus, he also wrote letters to the secretary general United Nations and the FATF to remove the name of Pakistan from the FATF's Grey List, and it was a matter of immense pleasure that Pakistan was given a temporary relief; however, he urges the government to pursue the matter that a permanent relief could be given to Pakistan by removing its name permanently from the grey list.
Senator Malik said that unfortunately the nation was not taking coronavirus seriously and they were not following the SOPs to prevent its further spread, resultantly the numbers of positive cases and deaths were rapidly increasing.
He said that the country would have a drastic increase in the positive cases of coronavirus and deaths, if the government did not implement the SOPs by force of law.
He said that confusion among masses was created about coronavirus and the government needed to remove all those confusions, and lead the nation in the right direction.
He emphasized the need to revamp the advocacy strategy to spread awareness to the general public regarding the pandemic in all local languages. He also advised to change the national slogan "we are not afraid of corona" as we have to tell the nation that it is a deadly virus and we have to prevent it collectively by following SOPs and taking it serious.
The secretary Interior briefed the committee on implementation of 37 points recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, and said that it proved a compact guideline for the government to combat coronavirus.
He said that the Senate Standing Committee on Interior was the first ever forum that assessed the potential threat of the coronavirus in the country, and guided the government about its prevention well before its outbreak.
He said that all the points were sent for implementation to the relevant departments and were implemented in all letter and spirit. Executive Director National Institute of Health (NIH) Major General Aamer Ikram also briefed the committee about the measures so far taken to combat the coronavirus.
While briefing the committee on the corona situation in the country, he informed that fatality rate in Pakistan was 2.6 percent and currently there were 16 Centers running in Pakistan.
Chairman Committee Senator Rehman Malik directed that the testing capacity must be increased as the senators from Balochistan expressed that testing facility was not available for people in their respective areas.
He said that he would personally request the Chinese government to assist Pakistan in this effort, and provide testing kits to Pakistan at affordable rates.
He also directed that test must be made more affordable that maximum people can be tested for coronavirus and that private labs must be accordingly regulated. He directed that residents of Kachi Abadis must be tested for coronavirus free of cost as they could not afford themselves, so the ratio of spread of coronavirus could be determined in the capital.
He also directed that government must not ignore the patients of coronavirus in rural areas and mobile laboratories should be deployed to test maximum suspects there.
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