Saleem Mandviwalla calls for postponing Senate, NA sessions            

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwalla on Sunday suggested to postpone National Assembly and Senate sessions after two parliamentarians were found infected with novel coronavirus, ARY NEWS reported.

“The virus has reached the parliamentary galleries,” he said while expressing his concern on reports of parliamentarians and assembly staffers contracting coronavirus.

“More lawmakers and staffers are likely to be affected from the virus,” he said while warning that summoning a session at that time could have serious consequences.

Saleem Mandviwalla said that the proceedings of both the houses of the Parliament should be delayed and steps should be taken so that no one enters the premises without being tested.

It is pertinent to mention here that with a session of the National Assembly slated to get underway on Monday, two members of the lower house of Parliament were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus on Sunday.

Sources relayed Syed Mehboob Shah and Gul Zafar Khan – a PTI MNA from Bajaur – tested positive for the infection that has thus far infected about 29,500 people and killed hundreds across the country.

Swabs of the affected lawmakers and others were taken by a special team of the National Institute of Health on May 8.

All members of the upper and lower houses of Parliament were instructed to take a test for the deadly virus before attending their scheduled sessions so as to avert a potential risk of the spread of the infection among the lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam, Senators Raja Zafarul Haq, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Saleem Zia, Abdul Qayum and others tested negative.