{"id":15111,"date":"2020-06-11T14:55:39","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T09:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/?p=15111"},"modified":"2020-06-11T14:55:39","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T09:55:39","slug":"nearly-100-pakistani-mps-infected-by-covid-19-inculding-n-a-opposition-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/archives\/15111","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 100 Pakistani MPs infected by COVID-19 inculding N.A. opposition leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pakistani politicians and parliament members are facing a huge increase of coronavirus cases in their ranks as about 100 parliamentarians have contracted the virus in recent days, an official said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Federal Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said one-third of the 342-member parliament tested positive, according to local media.<\/p>\n

But when Anadolu Agency contacted Hussain to confirm his comment, he said, “Yeah, its serious. Not exactly one-third but we are quite close to that.”<\/p>\n

He said: “I asked for a virtual session. Opposition never agreed and now almost whole leadership of PML-N [Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz] is C+ve.”<\/p>\n

Five senior MPs, including former interior minister and senior opposition leader Ahsan Iqbal tested positive for the virus, according to local media.<\/p>\n

“Today, the tests of Senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) National Assembly member Farrukh Habib, Senator Sana Jamali, JUI-F National Assembly member Shahida Akhtar Ali and MQM\u2019s Usama Qadri came back positive,” local broadcaster reported.<\/p>\n

Opposition leader in the Pakistan National Assembly and President of Pakistan Muslim League, Shehbaz Sharif, confirmed his party\u2019s senior leader contracted the virus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
National Assembly, Opposition leader, Shahbaz Sharif<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Sad to hear about the Covid-19 infection of PMLN’s General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal. He is not only a senior politician of the country but also an embodiment of nobility, competence, and unwavering ideological commitment. I pray to Allah for his speedy & complete recovery,” Sharif tweeted.<\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and former Health Minister for northeastern Punjab province Khawaja Salman Rafiq tested positive Monday.<\/p>\n

Other high-profile politicians infected include governor of southeastern Sindh province Imran Ismail, Parliament Speaker Asad Qaiser and former senior minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Inayatullah Khan, among others.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Pakistan the country at most risk to the pandemic after Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the government Tuesday, the UN health agency suggested a two-week strict lockdown to contain the surging outbreak.<\/p>\n

Responding to the WHO\u2019s suggestion, Health Minister Zafar Mirza said his country made the best sovereign decisions in the best interest of the people.<\/p>\n

“We have to make tough policy choices to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods,” state-run Radio Pakistan quoted Mirza.<\/p>\n

Health experts see the ever-rising caseload a result of the lifting of a prolonged lockdown late last month, warning that an already weak health care system could soon crash if the tally continues to surge at the current pace.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has reported 113,701 cases, already surpassing China and Saudi Arabia, putting it at number 15 worldwide in terms of the number of cases, according to the Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

At least 2,255 people have died from the virus and 36,308 patients have successfully recovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistani politicians and parliament members are facing a huge increase of coronavirus cases in their ranks as about 100 parliamentarians have contracted the virus in recent days, an official said Wednesday. Federal Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said one-third of the 342-member parliament tested positive, according to local media. But when Anadolu Agency contacted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15113,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15111\/revisions\/15113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}