LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami emir Sirajul Haq has demanded the government should provide food for 15 days to the people before announcing a lockdown in the country.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, he said the JI didn’t oppose lockdown strategy for checking spread of coronavirus, but only desired that the government first provide essential food items to the poor and the needy for the proposed two-week lockdown to save them from starvation during this period.

He urged political parties, NGOs and individual philanthropists to join hands with the government for this noble cause.

JI emir said as both coronavirus and starvation could cause large-scale deaths so the government should not wait for the last moment to come to the rescue of the citizens.

He demanded the government should waive off utility bills for the consumers earning less than Rs25,000 per month and urged owners of properties not to recover one-month rent from their tenants on humanitarian grounds.

Mr Haq said the government should also extend help to the Pakistanis stranded at various airports abroad.

He regretted that private hospitals lacked supply of surgical masks and other necessary medical gear needed for countering coronavirus.

Referring to separate strategies being adopted by the federal and provincial governments against the virus spread, he called for adopting a common plan to defeat the menace and averting politicking at a critical time.

Earlier, he opened a 160-bed isolation ward in the Mansoora hospital for coronavirus patients. He said the JI and its charity wing Al-Khidmat Foundation had offered the party’s hospitals and over 300 ambulances with staff for fighting against the disease.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2020