Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan says Prime Minister Imran Khan will address the nation to take into confidence regarding the situation on Coronavirus.  

Briefing the newsmen in Islamabad on Tuesday regarding the Federal Cabinet meeting, she said the cabinet was apprised of the overall situation relating to Coronavirus and the steps taken by National Coordination Committee to deal with it.

It was informed that the Committee is working in cooperation with provincial governments to monitor the situation and take steps, which are also being informed to public on daily basis. 

She said Advisor on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, while giving briefing on budget strategy paper, said that unprecedented achievements have been made in a relative shorter period of time.

The Cabinet overviewed the amounts spent on food security, health, higher education, tourism and other sectors.

It was informed that present government has paid 5000 billion rupees debt, financially empowered the ministries and increased revenue by 17 percent.

Under PSDP, 700 billion rupees and under public private partnership 250 billion rupees were earmarked.

It was informed that due to the bad policies of previous governments, a long term program was adopted for reducing the higher load of utility bills.

The cabinet was briefed in detail on energy situation of the country and was informed that all areas of energy including production, delivery and distribution have shown improvement. 

The Prime Minister, on the occasion, was apprised about the measures taken to increase exports of the country on which he expressed satisfaction.

Minister of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Dr Noorul Haq Qadri said that all big gatherings of religious have been postponed in a bid to contain spread of the Coronavirus.

He said functions and gatherings of other religions like Holi have also been postponed

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology, Qibla Ayaz appealed the Ulema to come forward and play their due role in creating awareness regarding precautionary measures against Coronavirus.

Minister for Aviation informed that National Security Committee's decision of diverting international flights to Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi airports has been reviewed and now all international flights are allowed to operate on other international airports of the country, except Gwadar and Turbat airports from Saturday.

He said all the international flights coming to Pakistan will be disinfected properly, while passengers on domestic flights will have to pass through the screening procedure.

Kiani/Akram/Karrar