ISLAMABAD            -               Chairman Senate Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani Saturday nominated 15 names representing all parties in the Senate
for the proposed parliamentary committee on national
health and economy to fight the novel coronavirus.In a letter written to the Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, the chairman Senate nominated all parliamentary
leaders in the Senate besides leader of the house Senator Syed Shibli Faraz and leader of the opposition
Senator Raja Muhammad Zafar-ul-Haq.“The committee would ensue better coordination between
various units of the federal government, provinces
and regions, undertake deliberations and review and make recommendations on national health and national economy in the situation,” the letter reads while proposing some of the ToRs of the committee.Prime Minister Imran Khan in a meeting with the NA speaker on Thursday last had decided to form a joint parliamentary committee of treasury and opposition members to seek opposition’s support in the fight against deadly virus. The Chairman Senate made these nominations following
his discussion with the speaker as he met Qaiser
here in Islamabad earlier on Saturday.The other senators nominated for the committee are Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati, PML-N Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, MQM Senator
Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, National Party Senator Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, JUI-F Senator Molana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) Senator Usman Khan Kakar. The other lawmakers
include Jamaat-e-Islami Senator Sirajul Haq, ANP Senator Sitara Ayaz, BNP (Mengal) Senator Dr Jahanzeb
Jamildini, PML-Functional Senator Syed Muzafar
Husain Shah, BAP Senator Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar and Senator Aurangzeb Khan from the erstwhile Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).In the letter, the Chairman Senate also proposed that the parliamentary committee should comprise of members from both the houses besides chief ministers
of all four provinces, and Gilgit Baltistan, and the prime minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir as ex-officio
members.Sanjrani warned that the deadly disease poses a serious
challenge to Pakistan while registering a sharp increase of its confirmed cases over the current week and severely disrupting the daily life. He reminded that health was a provincial subject after
the 18th Amendment and provinces were mandated to take all health related steps within their respective jurisdictions. However, there are no two opinions that the COVID-19 outbreak has started severely damaging economic activity in the country and serious implications
cannot be ruled out in the days to come, reads the letter. “There exists a pressing need to monitor, oversee
and steer the national economy out of this testing phase, which can be achieved only through cohesive, integrated
and focused mechanism at the national level.”The Chairman Senate underlined that Senate, as per Constitution, is the House of Federatios where all the provinces and territories are represented. “Therefore, as custodian of the House of the federating units and regions, I believe the situation warrants an overarching
body that combines views from all federating units and regions and serves as a forum of consultation, deliberations
and joint decision making,” he said. He concluded
that it was the need of the hour to take along all the units in all major decisions relating to national