COVID-19: Shibli advises PDM rally participants to quarantine themselves

ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the second wave of the novel coronavirus in the country, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Sunday advised the participants of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally in Peshawar to quarantine themselves at their homes, ARY News reported.

Commenting on the PDM’s Peshawar rally, Shibli Faraz urged the participants to get tested for COVID-19. He maintained, “The coronavirus pandemic is a fact. It is not a fiction.”

The minister said that putting peoples’ lives at stake for meager political gain amid the second wave of the deadly virus showed the PDM’s anti-people policy.

He maintained that the opposition’s stubbornness to hold a public meeting in the prevailing situation of resurge of COVID-19 cases in the country exposed their non-democratic and irresponsible conduct.

Lauding the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shibli Faraz said that the masses rejected the PDM’s anti-Pakistan agenda. He said that the masses boycotted the rally and showed their political acumen and mistrust in the opposition.

It is pertinent to mention here that the minister had warned that cases will be registered against the leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement if the virus cases rose in the province after the Peshawar rally.

Addressing the PDM rally in Peshawar, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government over its “failure in controlling inflation and poverty.”

He had said that corruption could not be eliminated from the country as long as “we won’t stop playing bad and good corrupt.”

The PPP leader also accused the ruling party of not fulfilling the promises it made to the people of FATA. “Country cannot have a strong accountability system until there is one law for all citizens,” the PPP leader concluded.

Addressing the rally, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman had expressed his condolences over the death of Maryam Nawaz’s grandmother Shamim Akhtar.

He had also extended his condolences to the families of Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi over their passing.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz had left Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Peshawar rally abruptly after the news of the demise of her grandmother Begum Shamim Akhtar in London.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Imran Khan had hinted at a blanket lockdown across Pakistan if cases continued to rise at the rate the country was witnessing at present.

He had tweeted: “Pakistan’s second COVID 19 spike data is of concern: Increase in Covid patients on ventilators in last 15 days: Peshawar 200%, Multan 200%, Karachi 148%, Lahore 114%, Islamabad 65%. Multan & Isb Covid ventilators capacity utilisation 70%. Across the world there is a second spike & complete lockdowns in most countries.”