LAHORE: The two major opposition parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have called upon the federal government to increase the number of free-of-cost coronavirus testing facilities under a comprehensive strategy to determine the extent of the malaise across the country.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif has called for expanding the testing facilities to ensure that each and every citizen undergoes free-of-cost screening. “Monitoring against and prevention from the virus is the key to protecting the people from the disease,” he said, urging the authorities to immediately shift Covid-19 patients from general hospitals to other places.

He suggested using buildings of marriage halls, schools, colleges and mosques as quarantine centres.

Mr Sharif also called for informing the people about the exact number of patients being screened for the virus daily as “covering up” facts would serve no purpose.

In an apparent reference to reported mistreatment of a coronavirus patient in Lahore’s Mayo Hospital, he called for training of health professionals so that they could handle these cases properly. Training manuals should include information on patient care, treatment, use of machines and testing, he added.

Opposition parties ask federal government to increase number of free testing facilities

Mr Sharif, as the president of PML-N — the ruling party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, held a meeting with the chief executives of the two regions through a video link. PML-N general secretary Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif, Marriyum Aurangzeb and other party officials were also in attendance.

AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and GB Chief Minister Hafizur Rehman informed the meeting about their requirements for dealing with the cases of Covid-19. They claimed that the federal government was not fulfilling their requirements in this regard.

Mr Haider said AJK needed 50 ventilators, 15 portable X-ray machines, personal protective equipment and hand sanitiser at once, while Mr Rehman sought testing laboratories in Gilgit, Skardu and Diamer, doubling the wheat quota for the region, ventilators and protective equipment.

He said in proportionate to its population GB was the most coronavirus-affected area in the country. He called for a six-month strategy in coordination with the federal government by declaring the region a red zone to tackle the disease.

The PPP has also demanded that at least one per cent of Punjab’s population should be tested for Covid-19 for devising an effective strategy to deal with the outbreak.

The demand was made at a meeting of the executive council of the PPP’s Punjab chapter. The meeting held through a video link on Sunday was presided over by PPP provincial president Qamar Zaman Kaira.

The meeting rejected the proposal by Prime Minister Imran Khan for forming a volunteer force with the name of ‘tiger force’ for delivering relief goods to poor people during the ongoing lockdowns.

Mr Kaira said that like Sindh, neighbourhood committees should be formed in Punjab and they should have representation from all political parties as well as NGOs operating in areas where relief goods would be distributed.

He also demanded restoration of the local body set-up which was earlier suspended by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Punjab and called for using them in relief goods’ delivery operations.

He said the PPP had appointed Syed Hassan Murtaza, the party’s parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly, as the focal person to meet the Punjab chief minister and the speaker for offering suggestions for tackling coronavirus-related crisis.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020