Centre, provinces likely to give unanimous decision on lockdown extension

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan will chair another session of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday, after which final decision on the extension of lockdown will be announced.

In the NCC session today, which was held in order to review the country-wide measures taken so far to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the premier agreed that a unanimous policy regarding the extension should be given.

Read more: PTI, PPP lock horns over coronavirus response in Sindh

In today's meeting, the prime minister accepted Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah's decision to impose extension in line with the centre's announcement.

The premier asked the pronvicial officers to submit their recommendations tomorrow so a formal decision could be announced.

The meeting reviewed different reports submitted by sub-committee and concerned departments about the arrangements to bring back all Pakistanis stranded abroad, management of quarantine centers at Taftan Border and status of Afghan nationals in the country.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 5,415 on Monday with 94 deaths reported across the country.

Construction sector to resume work from April 14

In today’s session, it was decided that the construction sector will resume work from April 14 under the first phase of measures taken for economic restoration amid the pandemic.

The meeting decided to direct the district administrations to enforce SOPs regarding the coronavirus while resuming operations.

Sindh's lockdown extension 

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that he wanted national consensus over the extension in lockdown, adding that they want the PM 'to take lead'.

The CM also defended the decision to impose a lockdown in the province to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

"We took the extreme step after reviewing and observing what other countries were doing to curb the spread of the virus," Shah said while addressing a press conference. 

“We have recorded 41 new cases while 30 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and been sent home. Overall 419 patients have recovered from the virus in the province, while 317 people are in hospitals and 37 in quarantine centres at the moment,” he informed.

The chief minister shared that he put Sindh’s concerns about the surge in cases during the first meeting of the National Coordination Committee in front of the federal government,

"I had strongly recommended a complete lockdown in the country but my advice was ignored back then,” Shah said.

He continued, “We had a video conference with the prime minister today. On April 1, the federal government had recommended extending the lockdown since it had helped us in controlling the situation. Following the meeting, the federal minister announced the extension of the lockdown which made me happy that our suggestions were being considered.”

Related: Sindh wants ‘stricter’ lockdown for two more weeks: CM Murad Ali Shah

The chief minister added that the federal government should lead from the front rather than leaving the decisions to the provincial governments.

Dismissing criticisms directed at the Sindh government, Shah said that they had not taken any funds from the coronavirus relief fund. “We have generated our own funds. The data is available on the website with details of the donors. We have collected funds from our employees who willingly contributed,” he remarked.

Earlier NCC meeting

PM Imran Khan, after the previous NCC meeting, said that the virus would not go way in two or three weeks but would continue for quite some time and the country did not have the resources to deal with the pandemic on a larger scale.

According to The News report, he said that the federal government decided to open the construction sector from April 14 while the agriculture sector was already open, exempted from the lockdown.

The prime minister had also urged people to get themselves registered with the Corona Tigers Relief Force, which would have two main purposes: to help identify people, who are desperately in need of help and identify people, who need to be put under quarantine.

The PM had also announced the launch of Ehsaas Cash Disbursement Programme, which he said would give cash to families in '17,000 areas' of the country.