ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has emphasised that only through a mutual international cooperation can the Covid-19 pandemic be overcome and defeated.

The PPP chairman said this during a television interview with Sky News on Saturday.

The PPP chairman said the developed countries had a duty to help the developing nations deal with the economic fallout and medical shortages caused by this pandemic. He said the world must be together at this time as humanity could not afford leaving anyone behind.

Those countries having resources would have to step up and distribute testing kits and medical equipment worldwide, he added.

Lamenting the world’s shift from multilateralism, Mr Bhutto-Zardari condemned the sanctions on Iran, claiming they were putting not just the Iranian people at risk, but risking the safety and security of the entire region. He also added that people of Indian Occupied Kashmir had been under a lockdown for 250 days before the pandemic and the world must ensure that these people were not left to the ravages of the disease.

PPP chairman condemns sanctions on Iran

Responding to a question about the situation in the country, the PPP chairman said Pakistan too had been badly affected by the outbreak. He pointed out the health system in Pakistan was not capable enough to withstand the full brunt of the pandemic. The only way to protect the lives of millions of Pakistanis was by enforcing a lockdown and advocating and facilitating social distancing.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari feared if the health systems of the countries like Italy and the UK were suffering under the deluge of Covid-19 patients, “then in a country like Pakistan, where we have 0.6 beds per 1,000 patients, the health system will collapse.”

Replying to another query regarding the Pakistan government’s efforts to deal with the situation, the PPP chairman said the opposition parties had offered their unconditional support to the federal government to chalk out a joint strategy to deal with the challenges posed by Covid-19. He, however, regretted that the federal government did not seem to working with the same urgency with which the provinces were working to fight the pandemic.

The federal government, he said, was not playing an appropriate role in supporting the provincial governments to increase their capacities or deal with any of the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2020