PML-N wants parliamentary oversight of corona relief fund

Published April 2, 2020
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif wrote the letter a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced setting up of a coronavirus relief fund for collecting money from philanthropists and overseas Pakistanis to generate resources to fight the disease that has affected the whole world. — DawnNewsTV
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif wrote the letter a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced setting up of a coronavirus relief fund for collecting money from philanthropists and overseas Pakistanis to generate resources to fight the disease that has affected the whole world. — DawnNewsTV

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif has written a letter to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, asking the latter to constitute a parliamentary committee to monitor public money and relief funds being used in the fight against coronavirus in the country.

“Pakistan is fighting this war against the pandemic [Covid-19] with measured resources and funds. Under such circumstances, it is imperative to ensure that these resources, especially monetary, be utilised with clinical precision and utmost transparency. The parliamentary oversight, therefore, is essential and uncompromisable in this regard. Which is why, you must set up a parliamentary monitoring committee to carry out this task,” writes the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly in his letter, a copy of which was released to the media by the PML-N here on Wednesday.

Mr Sharif wrote the letter a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced setting up of a coronavirus relief fund for collecting money from philanthropists and overseas Pakistanis to generate resources to fight the disease that has affected the whole world. Earlier, the government had also announced a Rs1,200 billion relief package to ameliorate the sufferings of the common people and business community due to the spread of coronavirus and prolonged lockdown in the country.

The PML-N president, who had returned to the country from the UK last month, has further asked the speaker to summon the meetings of the National Assembly and Senate health committees to review the situation due to spread of Covid-19.

“In view of conflicting information being shared by the government officials on and off the record, there is a direct need of briefing the people’s representatives regarding the truth,” writes Mr Sharif while arguing in favour of his demand for convening the meetings of the committees on health.

Party leaders propose steps for improving economic conditions

In the beginning of the letter, Mr Sharif appreciated the speaker for his initiative of calling the meeting of the parliamentary leaders last week, stating that “it is unfortunate that the conduct of the prime minister did not allow that effort to bear the desired fruit”.

Both Mr Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had boycotted the parliamentary meeting when Prime Minister Imran Khan abruptly left the meeting after delivering his opening speech.

Meanwhile, speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PML-N secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, party’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb and Senator Mussadiq Malik criticised the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for its alleged poor handling of the situation after the spread of coronavirus.

Terming the government’s relief package “insufficient”, Mr Iqbal presented a number of proposals in the form of demands to minimise the negative impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy and people.

He asked the government to announce a fresh economic package after consultation with the business leadership, including the office-bearers of various chambers of commerce and industry.

Mr Iqbal, who had served as the planning and development minister in the previous PML-N government, asked the government to bring the prices of petrol and diesel to Rs70 per litre keeping in view that oil prices had almost crashed in the international market. He urged the government to immediately announce at least 33 per cent reduction in electricity and gas tariffs, besides deferring the payment of electricity and gas bills for the poor for one year. He also called for a two-fold increase in the salaries of doctors, nurses and other paramedic staff fighting coronavirus as frontline soldiers.

He asked the government to arrange funds for the payment of six-month school fees for the parents belonging to the poor and middle class families.

Moreover, the PML-N leader urged the government to pay Rs15,000 per person to all those placed in quarantines. He said that this amount would not only help the families of the affected people in meeting their daily requirements, but this step would also serve as an incentive to the people who were reluctant to undergo testing for Covid-19. He also called for expanding the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and include 3.5 million more women whose data was already available with the government. In this way, he said, some 8m women would be able to get the BISP assistance.

Mr Iqbal also asked the government to divert Rs30bn development funds earmarked for the ruling party’s lawmakers to the coronavirus relief fund. He alleged that the government had politicised the coronavirus relief measures through distribution of forms to the needy people only by the PTI office-bearers.

Earlier, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi alleged that the government’s response to coronavirus was very slow, adding that the steps being taken now should have been taken 10 weeks before. He said the prime minister was not fully aware of the term ‘lockdown’. He said there was a need for a countrywide lockdown of the same nature.

He said PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif would announce on Friday (tomorrow) a national action plan to fight Covid-19.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020

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