PM Announces Rs 3,000 For Poor Families

(@fidahassanain)

PM announces Rs 3,000 for poor families

The PM says that POL Prices will be cut down by Rs 15 during this difficult time of Coronavirus.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-March 24th, 2020) The Federal government said that they would pay Rs 3,000 to each poor family as Rs 150 billion was reserved for this purpose here on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the package for the poor families across the country in fight against Coronavirus.

“This is first phenomenon in the world and there is criticism everywhere,” said the Prime Minister, adding that there was criticism everywhere in the world.

He announced Rs 200 billion for laborers at this difficult time. The government, he said, would expand shelter homes for poor people. He also announced that Rs 50 billion for Utility Stores and Rs 280 were allocated for wheat procurement.

The PM said that they were going to cut down Rs 15 on all POL products.

All the consumers using 300 units per months could be able to pay bills through installments, he said. The basic items like oil and pulses were also made available without taxes or with reduced taxes. For NDMA, Rs 25 billion were reserved,he said.

Later, he answered to the questions of the journalists at Prime Minister Office.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that decisions were made for the small elite class and all other segments of the society were ignored during the last 70 years. A journalist questioned the PM that interests rates were not talked too much and what was the policy to which Advisor to PM Hafeez Sheikh said that State Bank would deal with it and a monetary policy committee was also holding a meeting on it.

“Public hospitals were left only options for the poor and private hospitals were reserved for the elite class,” said Prime Minister Imran Khan said here on Tuesday.

He further said: “The consequences of curfew may be very serious,”.

Another question that lockdown policy was not applied by the government so seriously to step Coronavirus from Iranian side, he said that this occasion must be used to make people aware about Coronavirus.

The curfew, he said, could cause serious impact as these could lead towards unrest in the country. The PM said that there was no freedom as Pakistani media enjoyed maximum freedom as compared to European.

Pakistan received on Feb 26, the first Coronavirus case but they controlled the situation but Iranian did not control it as China did.

“Many passengers from Iran were forced to sit at Taftan and Dr. Zafar Mirza went there to see the facilities. We shifted labs very far at Taftan border. Many countries were there which failed to deal with Coronavirus.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.