'Ignorant' people's revenge to show up in polls: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday lambasted the federal government over what he said was "criminal negligence" over Pakistan's coronavirus response which caused massive spread of the disease.

"Who had said that the coronavirus is just a mild flu and not a deadly disease," Bilawal said while addressing the Parliament during the third day of coronavirus budget session.

"Who opposed the lockdowns in the country and then imposed the lockdown and then eased them and to date is confused on what to do? How dare you blame the people of Pakistan for your criminal negligence in the country? How dare you?" asked Bilawal.

The PPP chairman said the PPP will avenge the government’s statement of terming the nation backward in the next general elections. He said every 15 minutes, someone died of the deadly Covid-19 — the disease caused by the novel coronavirus infection — in Pakistan and on top of that, the country "is threatened by locust attacks".

"We have a forecast for tsunami and global recession. This cannot be a budget of a country suffering from the global pandemic," he said, highlighting that the South Asian nation had 149,000 patients of the respiratory illness and that another 2,900 citizens had succumbed to it.

Noting that the close to 2,000 frontline healthcare workers had contracted the coronavirus and 40 had lost their lives, Bilawal slammed the government over its incompetence and inability to plan. He said the Pakistani people were expecting the budget to be in accordance with the country's pandemic woes "but they opposed every decision taken to stem the spread of the disease".

"The federal government did not just oppose Sindh's but every provincial government's decision regarding curbing the coronavirus. Now when we know that the virus has gone rampant, did we drastically increase the health budget? No!” he lamented.

"Have we increased the salaries of our front line workers? Have we given them the risk allowance? No! How much proportion have we separated for the awareness of the virus?" he asked.

The PPP chief blasted the PTI-led federal government for constituting the budget in a manner that implied the deadly virus was the talk of past and Pakistan had already combated it. "We'd been putting our concerns forward regarding the locust attacks. We'd been shouting in the Parliament about the threats of the virus since February but nobody listened to us. (BNP chief) Akhtar Mengal and (former president) Asif Ali Zardari had been voicing concerns about the locust attacks previously,” he reminded.

"They had already warned that this is the biggest threat in 25 years. You kept on saying that the National Action Plan (NAP) is ready and we will fight through! What are you waiting for?” he asked.

"Are you waiting for droughts, famines and economic downfall in the country? Who should we blame for these ineffective decisions? We wanted to combat the virus with political unity," Bilawal added, noting that the government of Sindh and PPP had appealed to the Centre to follow the guidelines issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He further chastised Prime Minister Imran Khan's administration for prioritising resumption of business operations. "We were listening to our health professionals and their guidelines but our prime minister was listening to the business community and catering to their needs and demands," he noted, underlining how after easing the lockdown restrictions, the virus spread from urban centres to rural areas.

Taking a jibe at the cricketer-turned-prime minister and his slogan, he sarcastically said: "Oh but ghabrana nahi hai (no need to worry) since we won the 1992 World Cup! Right?" Members of opposition in National Assembly repeatedly interrupted Federal Minister Murad Saeed during his address, standing up from their seats and chanting slogans against the PTI leader. Bitter words were exchanged between both groups and the proceedings had to be stopped for 10 minutes.

During the speeches of Khawaja Asif and Murad Saeed, members of the House started making a ruckus and disturbed proceedings. The deputy speaker repeatedly directed all members to show restraint and respect each other, saying that it would convey a very negative message to the public.

The deputy speaker said that all members should converse politely and maintain social distancing. Deputy speaker along with Rana Tanveer got angry over the bitter and vulgar language exchanged between Sheikh Rohail Asghar and Murad Saeed.

Murad Saeed, while replying to Khawaja Asif, had said that the allegations made by him were false. He also said that Khawaja Asif was working abroad on Iqama even as Pakistan’s minister of defence and foreign affairs.

On the points of Khawaja Asif, the chair said Pakistan will never recognise Israel which is occupying the land of Palestinians. He said our hearts beat with the oppressed Palestinian people.

Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said the Kashmir dispute stands internationalized as a result of the efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said the way Imran Khan has pleaded the case of Kashmiris at the international level is unprecedented.

Murad Saeed said the government is pursuing the strategy of protecting the people from coronavirus and hunger as per the vision of Imran Khan. He said the government has given a massive stimulus package of Rs1,200 billion to support different segments of society during these testing times. Murad Saeed said the government has increased the health and education budget for the next fiscal year.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also reaffirmed Pakistan's stance on Israel and clarified that the county will never recognise Isreal. Qureshi strongly rejected the statements attributed to him and the prime minister about the recognition of Israel and said there is no truth in them.

"I want to make it clear that the rumours of recognising Israel are baseless and not true," the minister said in his policy statement in the National Assembly, adding that Pakistan was and to date a supporter of the two-state ideology.