NCOC meeting brings mly, political leadership to overcome contagion

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah and Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Mehdi Shah have so far been supporting federal government to fight against the coronavirus pandemic under National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC). 

While talking to senior anchor person, Hamid Mir on Geo News programme “Capital Talk,” Asad Umar said though there is a lot of politics on TV programmes but we all are working here to fight the pandemic and have nothing to do with the politics.

In the first-ever TV programme showing the political and military leaderships sitting together and taking decisions under the same roof, the Capital Talk showed the civil and military officials, including NCOC Convener Lt. Gen Hamood-uz-Zaman and NHA Chief Maj Gen Amir Ekram working alongside the political leadership. The meeting was also attended through video link by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister Gilgit-Baltistan Mehdi Shah, chief secretaries of Punjab and Balochistan, and Finance Minister KPK Taimoor Jhagra.

It was a rare sight that the federal and Sindh governments who are often seen fighting each other on news channels working amiably. The Federal Minister Asad Umar and CM Sindh Murad Ali Shah were seen talking to each other amicably during the NCOC meeting. During the meeting, the federal minister directed KPK minister for finance Taimoor Jhagra to resolve the complaint of Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah that those who returned to Sindh after "clearance certificates from the isoaltion" turned out to be coronavirus positive on retesting.

Meanwhile, the KPK representative told the meeting that the people coming from Afghanistan through Torkham border are mostly coronavirus positive. The Special Advisor to the PM on National Security Moeed Yusuf said we need to be very careful because Afghanistan is the only country in the world having no facility for coronavirus tests. The chief minister GB told the meeting that his region is improving in context of the coronavirus outbreak, despite that eight employees of a bakery out of 12 tested positive. The NHA Chief Maj Gen Amir Ekram assured his full cooperation to the CM GB on the issue.

Anchor person Hamid Mir commented that during the NCOC meeting, which was presided over by Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, the political and military leaderships seemed taking decisions unanimously. He said the military leadership was helping the political government and the unity would lead us to success against the feared pandemic.