LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar says the federal government is being recommended to open industries and businesses to further relax the lockdown and decisions in this regard will be made in the National Coordination Committee on Covid-19.

Speaking at a news conference through video link from his office on Saturday, the CM acknowledged that the government was cognisant of the problems of labourers, daily wagers and other low-income groups of society.

He stated the Punjab government had also requested the federal government to allow construction-related industries, including building and road sector, to work. He said recommendations had also been made for opening the feed industry related to the export sector, power looms and all such factories that had their own labour colonies inside their premises as well as iron, steel industry and home appliances industry.

CM says more industries, business may be allowed to work; recommendations made to open bazaars on different days

Mr Buzdar said the recommendations had been submitted to the federal government for opening the markets and bazaars on different days by dividing them into zones across the province. He explained that the decision would be made in consultation with the district administration, trade unions, chamber of commerce and industry and other stakeholders.

The chief minister declared that ‘smart sampling’ was being started in six districts – Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala, Gujrat and Faisalabad. Under the initiative, he said, the workers of the media houses, officials of law enforcement agencies, administrative officers, health workers, TB and HIV patients, pregnant women and prisoners would be tested for Covid-19.

“Sampling at a larger scale will help the government review the spread of coronavirus incidence in the community,” he said and added that in the second phase, samples would be collected in census blocks.

Mr Buzdar said eight BSL-III labs had been made functional in Punjab at a cost of Rs620m, empowering Punjab to conduct 6,000 tests on a daily basis. On Friday alone, he claimed, 3,700 tests were conducted in the province and that there was no shortage of testing kits, PPEs and beds.

Talking about the Pakistanis coming from abroad, he said thousands of Pakistanis were coming back from abroad on a daily basis and they were being looked after in hotels and other quarantine centres. He said the people landing in Punjab were being sent to their respective provinces from the airports after informing their area administrations. He explained that people belonging to districts would be allowed to go to their homes within 48 hours if their corona test would be negative.

Answering a question, CM Buzdar said instructions for an inquiry into the alleged mismanagement at the Expo Centre quarantine had been given and its report would be received soon.

He said there were 6,850 confirmed corona patients in Punjab while 115 patients had so far lost their lives due to the pandemic. He disclosed that approximately 90,000 tests had been conducted so far and expressed satisfaction that 2,206 people had recovered and gone back to their homes.

Mr Buzdar said some 90pc members of Tableeghi Jamaat and the devotees, who were kept in quarantine, had also gone to their homes after recovery.

Under Ehaas Kafalat Programme, the CM said Rs34bn had so far been distributed among 2m families and the process of assistance was still going on. Under Insaaf Imad Package, he said, assistance of Rs12,000 per family would be distributed among 2.5m families from the next week while under the Ramazan Package, he said, financial assistance of Rs3,000 per family would be given to one million families.

Provincial ministers Dr Yasmin Rashid and Mian Aslam Iqbal also gave answers to the media persons’ questions.

Provincial ministers Raja Basharat, Hashim Jawan Bakht, Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, the chief secretary, IGP and other officers concerned were present.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2020