Coronavirus Relief Tiger Force is for Pakistan not PTI: Shafqat Mahmood

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Monday said that the Coronavirus Relief Tiger Force was not meant to recruit PTI activists instead it is a force for Pakistan, ARY NEWS reported.

“We will be establishing an online portal for registration of volunteers and anyone from across the country could get registered with the force using it,” he said while talking during ARY NEWS programme ‘Power Play’.

The federal minister also denied that the cash distribution among needy families would be carried out by lawmakers and said that it would be carried out by local administration.

While rejecting the option of country-wide lockdown, Shafqat Mahmood said that a lockdown was not possible in a country where 50 percent of the population is deprived of basic food items.

It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday chaired a meeting to finalize a mechanism to be adopted for ‘Coronavirus Relief Tiger Force’- a volunteer program aimed at carrying out activities at the time of the pandemic.

The premier chairing a consultative meeting attended by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar, PM’s Principal Secretary Azam Khan, Shahzad Akber and others.

The meeting devised a mechanism for recruitment in the tiger force and the functions they had to carry out while volunteering their services.

Usman Dar was given responsibility on the matter while the prime minister would record a special message for the volunteers.

The meeting decided that healthy youngsters aging above 18 years could register themselves for the force and would take part in managing affairs at the quarantine centres in urban and rural areas of the country.

“They will also take care of patients quarantined at their homes along with providing guidelines to the masses in hospitals and public places,” the meeting decided besides the tigers would also collect data regarding suspected patients and unemployed people in their respective area of responsibility.

The volunteers will also assist police and local administration in implementing lockdown and would also identify hoarders and those hiking commodity prices.