Why One Need to Laud Government Decision?
Muhammad
Abbas
"When
any epidemic is occurred in an area, it is necessary for inhabitants to not leave
nor the outsiders to enter the area”, narrated by Hazrat Ali RA, the fourth
Caliph of Muslims. The new infectious novel coronavirus which never been
identified in human being hit central Chinese city of Wuhan. This outbreak took
precious lives of more than 560 including one death in Philippine and sickened
nearly 28,000 other people, including 4 Pakistani citizens who were in Wuhan.
Approximately,
28,000 Pakistani citizens are living in China, specifically 500 of them are in
the virus-hit city. The virus also extends to other countries including India,
UK, Germany, Italy, UAE, Malaysia, Finland, USA, Canada, Cambodia, France,
Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Korea, Philippines,
Nepal, Macau, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia.
Furthermore,
headache, sneezing, coughing, high temperature, and shortness of breath while
breathing are signs and symptoms of nCoV. According to health experts the nCoV
seems to start with headache followed by high temperature, sneezing, dry cough,
shortness of breath, and the last stage is the failure of kidneys.
Following,
China put travel restrictions on its citizens into and out of the city, as it
quarantined the whole city of Wuhan according to media reports. The World
Health Organization (WHO) had declared an international emergency, that’s why
Pakistan had decided to “halt” its flights to and from China, as media
reported.
Besides that,
China has set a precedent by building up a 1000-bed hospital on emergency basis
in 10 days to combat the new infectious virus. Similarly, when a SARS disease
had hit China in 2003, about 4,000 workers built up a hospital in seven day for
the SARS’s patients.
Apart from
that, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on health, Dr. Zafar Mirza has said
in a press conference on 30 January that “the government decided to not
evacuate” the stranded citizens from China as the Pakistani embassy in China is
in contact with them and they take good care and medical treatment there. He
also called this decision in the greater interest of stranded people (to live
in China), region, and world as well.
On January 31st,
in Senate the opposition lawmakers lashed out at the government decision.
According to media reports senator Usman Kakar of PkMAP said, “there is
curfew-like situation in Wuhan city”. “Chinese citizens are coming to
Pakistan, but our own citizens are not being brought back”, he added.
While, the
senator of PTI Mohsin Aziz said, “the sick should be quarantined while the
others should be allowed who have no signs of the virus”. On the other hand,
another leader of PTI Seemi Ezdi said, “the sufferers have better access to
health facilities, as they are getting good treatment facilities in China and
we cannot treat them in Pakistan”, as media reported.
Moreover,
leader of the house Shibli Faraz revealed in senate that “840 US Dollars have
been transferred into the account of each student in China” which paved the way
too many questions. Following Imran Muhammad, a journalist tweeted that,
“according to my information no student has received such payment yet. The
question is that when the Chinese government provide scholarships to these
students and in the current scenario the universities are providing them everything
free, then why this aid is needed?”
Whatever, but
there are many reasons to laud the government decision to not “repatriated” the
citizens from China: First, as dengue takes many precious lives every year and
it is a threat and challenge for us for many years, but the PTI government
previous year was unable to control it.
Second, when
the stranded students have available facilities and they are taking good care
and medical treatment as SAPM on health Dr. Zafar mirza said, so there is no
need to evacuate them. This way and by halting flights in and from China we can
remain safe from the virus.
Indeed to, we
have not need to depend on any other country, especially when it is about the
health but, unfortunately due to corruption, mismanagement and poor governance,
the situation got worst like this, that today we are unable to evacuate our
stranded citizens due to lake of resources.
Writer is a
freelance article writer and student of Media and Communication Studies at
International Islamic University, Islamabad.
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