ISLAMABAD          -          Senator Rehman Malik, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on In­terior yesterday urged for the im­plementation of the SOPs on the coronavirus.

Senator Malik reviewed the implementation status on the 37-point recommendations of the Committee with reference to An­ti-Corona National Action Plan to control the spread of Coronavirus in Pakistan.

The report received on 8th May, 2020, from the Ministry of Interi­or on the implementation status of Anti-Coronavirus National Action Plan proposed by the Committee was examined and he appreciat­ed the efforts being undertaken by the National Command and Con­trol Centre to battle against Coro­navirus pandemic in the country.

However, Senator Rehman has shown his dissatisfaction over the implementation of the SOPs, is­sued by WHO and NCOC for social distancing in the offices and pub­lic at large. He reiterated that the Committee, on Anti-Coronavirus National Action Plan, has already issued 37-point recommendations to be implemented by all stake­holders with full collaboration.

Senator A. Rehman Malik stated that most of the recommendations of the Committee have been im­plemented by the Ministry of In­terior, Ministry of National Health Services and other stakehold­ers as per their report dated 08th May, 2020, however, a few recom­mendations are under process for implementation by the other con­cerned department. He appreciat­ed the Secretary, M/o Interior for his prompt action and pursuing the matter for implementation of the Anti-Coronavirus National Ac­tion Plan envisaged by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior in its meetings held on 27th Febru­ary, 2020 and 06th March, 2020, in the larger interest of the nation.

Senator Malik, keeping in view the new emerging alarming situa­tion, has expressed his apprehen­sions that the graph of coronavi­rus patent will continue to rise all over the world in the days to come and unfortunately there is no vac­cine or medicine available to cure the pandemic so far.

Senator A. Rehman Malik re­ferred the statement of Director General World Health Organiza­tion who has shown his apprehen­sion that Coronavirus patients may go to above 200,000 during the next two months in Pakistan. D.G. WHO has confirmed the ap­prehensions of Senator Rehman Malik who had been constantly informing about the increase of number of patents of coronavirus.

He appealed to the nation that the propaganda regarding no coro­navirus is disinformation, hence do not listen to this propaganda as coronavirus is a hard fact. He also stated that the government should dispel this propaganda.

He stated that according to WHO formula if one patient is infected he might affect 28 people around him and if the present figure of corona patients in Pakistan i.e. 70,000 is not quarantined proper­ly, the figure of the infected person could reach upto two million (God Forbid) by the end of June, 2020, according to formula of WHO.

Senator A. Rehman Malik, has proposed that the Ministry of Na­tional Health Services & Regula­tions should ensure temporary (makeshift) hospitals in the ur­ban areas keeping in view the in­creasing number of coronavirus patients in every city, as the space and capacity in the hospitals is running out day by day.

He says a Special Cell should be created for the patients emerging from the rural areas and make all the arrangements of their treat­ments within the respective ru­ral areas. Rural Population is con­tracting coronavirus rapidly and lot of reports are coming that there are number of patients in the vil­lages which are going unchecked and without treatment. Hence the government should make arrange­ments to handle such a big num­ber of patients It is therefore im­perative for, government, M/o Heath, NCCA to ensure temporary hospitals in the rural areas.

The Senator said civil hospitals for coronavirus patients may be hand­ed over to the Army Medical Corps) to manage the increasing load of coronavirus patients in near future.

Malik said smart lockdown can­not be maintained unless it is en­forced by force of law hence Army curfew may be imposed for the purpose of enforcing the social distancing and other SOPs as per WHO and NCOC by public at large.

“A special data management team should be formed with the collaboration of NADRA and Stat­ists Division to maintain the data of coronavirus patients for proper management and for future medi­cal research,” he said.

He said the Ministry of Nation­al Education to evolve a special on-line education system which should not be expensive and an App may be developed by the I.T.

He said department should be available on the internet free of cost and the online system should be from primary to post-graduation.

“This App should be available for all schools, colleges, Universi­ties, Institutions and Professional and Technical Institutions as we do not know how long we are go­ing to suffer,” he added.

Senator Malik has stated that it is his heartfelt appeal to the govern­ment, opposition, NGOs, intellectu­als that “let us move forward with the prayer that Allah may save us from this deadly virus and he fur­ther appealed that let us rise above politics and work together at all levels to safe our present and next generations from COVID-19. He ex­pressed his concern that as a na­tion we are not taking Coronavirus seriously otherwise we will have to repent on our non-seriousness.”

Senator Malik urged the Prime Minister of Pakistan to call a meet­ing of all parties conference (APC) alongwith the provincial Chief Ministers to build a national con­sensus on one point agenda: ‘an­ti-coronavirus steps and way for­ward to fight it out.’

He warned that the growing num­ber of patients will become in a gigan­tic bulk and the government with the present limited resources and fragile medical policy will not be able to han­dle it. He stated that coronavirus pan­demic is our national problem and hence let’s fight it with collective wis­dom and national consensus.