LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said protecting the increasing number of vulnerable families and controlling coronavirus are the two key challenges being confronted by the nation.

“There shall be no misperception that the coronavirus will spare anyone,” the Prime Minister said, advising the masses to exercise precaution and self-discipline to keep themselves safe.

He expressed these views while speaking at the PM’s Corona Relief Fund, ration distribution and Corona Relief Tiger Force Volunteers ceremonies at Punjab Governor House on Saturday.

Mr Khan said: “Pakistanis will emerge as a triumphant nation in the long-drawn battle against the spread of coronavirus as well as serving the poor and resourceless people at their doorsteps.” He urged the 600,000-strong Tiger Force Volunteers to cash in on this opportunity by serving the masses with full zeal. “People never forget those who serve them in their hard times,” he remarked.

While telling the Tiger Force Volunteers that the massive relief efforts of the government would go to their credit, the PM said the opposition parties would be facing their worst times, because they had never trained themselves to serve the masses but banked on criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government.

PM says opposition only criticising govt instead of serving people

Mr Khan added that the opposition had not tuned itself for social work but amassed wealth and “they did well in piling up assets”. It would be very difficult for the opposition to do social work and serve the humanity, the prime minister said.

He regretted that politics had earned a bad name due to the vested interest of those politicians who won the elections in the name of serving masses but looked after themselves after coming into power. PM Khan asked the ministers as well as PTI MNAs and MPAs to go to the downtrodden people and serve them in these testing times.

He said there were around 600 million Pakistanis living below the poverty line and in a crisis like the current one, some 500 million white-collar people also fell below the poverty line.

Mr Khan said the nation should stay prepared for the worst, as no one knew about the onslaught of the coronavirus in Pakistan as well as world over or when this virus would die down and be eliminated.

On the government front, the PM said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was analysing data on a daily basis and responding by sealing those areas where clusters of coronavirus patients were reported. “The government cannot lock down the whole country, as any such effort will fail if people without any resources are not provided with food on a daily basis,” he added.

Mr Khan said only the Chinese government could implement this model of serving people at their doorsteps and eventually they won the war against coronavirus. He said the strongest economy like the US faced a setback, because people did not show responsibility despite having a relief fund to the tune of $2,000 billion. Pakistan had only $8 billion relief package, he said, adding that the Pakistani “nation can combat this challenge through discipline and resolve to serve the humanity – a lesson this nation learnt when Pakistan came into being”.

The PM said the relief package offered by the PTI government was the biggest relief package in the history of Pakistan. He said the government had collected the data of people living below the poverty line and continued to add those missed from respective districts in the country.

Mr Khan also vowed that a Facebook page would be created next week to help the charities to serve the people in need. After the 2005 earthquake and 2010 floods, philanthropists piled up food items at certain places while leaving those in dire need, he said. “The poor will be given relief on merit without considering any political divide,” Mr Khan announced, citing the examples of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Namal Institute in his hometown.

The Prime Minister said it was encouraging that philanthropists were coming up with much bigger donations to serve the humanity, which was the basic principle of the Riasat-i-Madina. He said it was also encouraging that more and more sports and showbiz personalities were opening up charities to serve the masses.

He said the government had opened the construction industry to help people continue earning their livelihood while staying safe from contracting coronavirus. The agriculture sector is already serving the masses in rural areas, he added.

Mr Khan also lauded the performance of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for managing the coronavirus crisis, setting up healthcare facilities and offering relief to the people in an organised manner.

Governor Chaudhry Sarwar also spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, the prime minister visited the field hospital set up at Lahore’s Expo Centre where Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid briefed him on quarantine facilities for coronavirus patients.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020