ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has come beneath extreme criticism from each the opposition and the general public for holding an in-person assembly together with his media group regardless of being contaminated with the novel coronavirus, in keeping with a media report on Friday.
Khan, 68, examined constructive for the coronavirus on Saturday final, simply a few days after receiving an anti-COVID vaccine.
First Woman Bushra Bibi additionally examined coronavirus constructive the identical day.
Khan acquired the primary shot of the Chinese language-produced Sinopharm vaccine, the one anti-COVID jab out there in Pakistan, on Thursday as a part of the nationwide anti-coronavirus vaccination marketing campaign which is underway in its first section.
The criticism of the prime minister started quickly after an image of the assembly was posted on social media by Info and Broadcasting minister Shibli Faraz and one other lawmaker Faisal Javed, who attended the assembly.
The image confirmed Khan, clad in a gray tracksuit and joggers, sitting in a room on a settee at a ways from his media group comprising Faraz, Javed, Yousuf Baig Mirza and Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari.
In keeping with the Daybreak newspaper, Khan presided over the assembly at his Banigala residence on Thursday.
The opposition mentioned the prime minister himself violated commonplace working procedures regardless of the third wave of the dreaded illness and known as for registration of an FIR in opposition to all these individuals who attended the assembly for violating the usual working procedures (SOPs).
Apparently, not one of the authorities’s spokesmen may defend the prime minister adequately on his act of chairing a gathering throughout the quarantine interval and plenty of of them averted to interact media personnel over the problem, the report mentioned.
In messages posted on social media platforms, folks puzzled whether or not it was needed for the prime minister to carry an in-person assembly.
They requested why he didn’t chair the assembly by means of one of many many video conferencing purposes out there.
In keeping with the SOPs formulated by Nationwide Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) — the principle nationwide physique set as much as management the pandemic — a COVID-19 affected person must be quarantined for 9 to 14 days.
Nonetheless, Prime Minister Khan attended the assembly solely 4 days after testing constructive for the illness.
When contacted, Planning and Improvement minister and NCOC Chairman Asad Umar mentioned the SOPs solely recommended precautions and individuals of the assembly have been sitting at an inexpensive distance from the prime minister.
He, nevertheless, admitted that it was higher to keep away from such conferences throughout the quarantine interval.
Yousuf Baig Mirza, who was amongst these current on the assembly, rejected the criticism and mentioned the assembly was held after taking all precautionary measures as per the SOPs.
We didn’t contact one another and all of us have been sporting masks.
We didn’t take something to eat and drink and sat with an inexpensive distance from the prime minister throughout the 45-minute assembly, he mentioned.
In the meantime, Pakistan Medical Affiliation’s basic secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad mentioned sufferers affected by COVID-19 mustn’t meet folks.
Commenting on Khan’s assembly, he mentioned: There are possibilities of transmission of coronavirus.
Whether it is needed to carry conferences, the prime minister ought to use the choice of video conferencing because the virus quickly spreads in closed areas.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s info secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb mentioned Khan violated the SOPs and gave a message to your complete nation that there was no must comply with them.
The heads of states and governments ought to set examples for the general public.
However right here the prime minister is himself encouraging folks to violate the SOPs, she was quoted as saying by the report.
