Sirajul Haq accuses govt of delayed response

LAHORE:JI ameer Senator Sirajul Haq expressed sorrow that the PTI government had responded at least 15 to 20 days late to the calls for a comprehensive planning and countrywide lockdown, adding if the government had paid any heed to the calls earlier, the situation would have been totally different in the country.

Not only that the government did not give ears to the warning of WHO, but it followed the Italy Model instead of adopting the China model to deal with the coronavirus threat, he said while talking to the media after a meeting with a delegation of JI’s social welfare organisation, Al-Khidmat Foundation, led by president Abdul Shakoor who apprised him about the welfare activities being carried out across the country including distribution of ration, medicines, masks, sanitizers, etc.

Sirajul Haq lamented that coronavirus spread in the country only because the government failed to subject the incoming pilgrims and passengers to proper screening and had no facilities at the borders for putting them in quarantine. He said if a proper national action plan to ward off corona virus threats had been made one month earlier, the country could have been saved from the dangers prowling now. He said the nation was gripped with fears, but the rulers had been in a state of indecisiveness till now.

He praised the efforts and management of Abdul Shakoor and his team of dedicated workers who had a long history of social welfare in times of floods, earthquakes and other calamities. He exhorted them to work with the same spirit and reach out to the daily wage workers who had been the worst affected under the current situation, and provide rations supplies to their doorsteps. He also expressed satisfaction that Al-Khidmat was setting up new isolation wards and other facilities in its hospitals and dispensaries to deal with the situation, and it had already given all is hospitals, ambulances and other resources at the disposal of the government.