Construction of Gwadar airport begins

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The construction of the New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) has begun, the Chairman of the China Pakistani Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Lt. Gen (rtd) Asim Saleem Bajwa, shared on May 8.

All pending issues had been resolved and the stuck up containers comprising machinery for the NGIA project got cleared from the Gwadar Port, General Asim Bajwa tweeted. 

He further pointed out that labour force has been mobilized at the site and the briefing on SoPs on COVID-19 for them also conducted, mentioning that the NGIA project cost would be $ 230 million. 

It may be recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan had performed the ground breaking ceremony of the NGIA in March last year.

“What a pleasure it is to be in Gwadar. In the coming months, years, Gwadar would be, I see, as engine of growth for Pakistan,” the Prime Minister had stated in his speech on the occasion. 

Upon its completion in 2022, the NGIA, to be operated by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA), will become the biggest international airport of Pakistan which will also have the capacity to handle the world’s largest passenger aircraft, Airbus A 380. 

The construction of the NGIA happens to be one of several development projects being funded by the Chinese government as part of the CPEC, a cornerstone of China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative.

The NGIA was initiated as an early harvest high-priority project of the CPEC programme in 2014. It was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) in January 2015. 

The airport will be located 26km north-east of the existing airport in Gwadar City on the south-western Arabian Sea coast of Balochistan region. 

The land acquired for the airport is situated in Gurandani, next to the Makran Coastal Highway. 

Planned to be spread over an area of 4,300 acres, it will also have the provision to build a second runway, which will be located north of the main runway.

China to continue supporting Pakistan in fight against coronavirus, locust

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing, has assured that his country will continue supporting Pakistan in the fight against coronavirus and locust.

He expressed these views during his meeting with the Federal Minister for Food Security and Research, Syed Fakhar Imam, in Islamabad. The Federal Secretary, Omar Hamid Khan, was also present on the occasion according to the details shared by the Chinese embassy on May 8. 

The two sides exchanged in-depth views in promoting agricultural co-operation under the auspices of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

Ambassador Yao congratulated Minister Imam for assuming the new responsibility, reminding him that China and Pakistan have been all-weather friends for a long time. 

Presently, as the Pakistani government and people were making efforts to fight the epidemic, they were being supported by the Chinese government and all sectors of the society. 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China has donated a batch of anti-epidemic materials to the Ministry of Food Security and Research of Pakistan in order to express the confidence of the Chinese and Pakistani agricultural departments to cooperate and fight the epidemic together. 

“When the severe locust disaster broke out in Pakistan early this year, the Chinese side also dispatched a locust control team in time and provided locust control equipment,” Ambassador Yao recalled adding China will work closely with the Ministry of Food Security and Research to actively promote new development in agricultural cooperation under the CPEC. 

The Minister thanked China for its strong support in locust eradication and anti-epidemic activities and stated that the China Locust Eradication Working Group has chalked out a comprehensive locust disaster management plan for Pakistan. 

“Agriculture is a key area in the next phase of the CPEC. Pakistan welcomes Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan” Fakhar Imam remarked. 

He hoped that the two sides will carry out further cooperation in transfer of agricultural technology and transformation, agricultural product processing and trade, capacity building and exchange of research institutions.

Both parties also attended the handover ceremony of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ assistance to Pakistan’s Food Security and Research Department in the prevention of epidemic diseases.

China, Pakistan vow to promote cultural relations

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Yao Jing, has assured that China was willing to work together with Pakistan to support the exchange of news media between the two countries.

Ambassador Yao Jing expressed these views during his meeting with the newly appointed Pakistan’s Minister for Information, Shibli Faraz, at the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad on May 6. 

The Ambassador congratulated the minister on his new role and thanked him for his long-term support for the development of China-Pakistan relations and for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). 

Yao reaffirmed that China and Pakistan have been true friends in crisis and good brothers who shared the same difficulties. 

When China fully responded to the domestic epidemic situation, Pakistan extended firm support. In the same way Pakistan was currently facing an epidemic challenge and China was also firmly standing with Pakistan by sharing prevention and control experience, providing anti-epidemic materials and working together to jointly handle the situation. 

The Ambassador pointed out that China was willing to expand cooperation in the cultural field and play a greater role in consolidating China-Pakistan friendship and promoting the high-quality development of the CPEC.  

Reciprocating, Minister Shibli Faraz positively evaluated China's anti-epidemic achievements and thanked the Chinese government and people for their vigorous assistance and support for the anti-epidemic disease in Pakistan. 

He maintained that China and Pakistan were the best of friends and brothers and the friendship between the two countries was time-tested.

Coronavirus Update: Deaths at homes rise

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Amidst growing concern over healthcare delivery to COVID-19 patients kept in home isolation, the Sindh health authorities reported five more deaths among such patients on May 7 when 453 new infection cases were also registered across the province. 

A study of the relevant official data revealed that as many as 60 home- based coronavirus positive patients have lost their lives across the province so far. On average three of the patients advised to stay in isolation at homes died every day during a period from May 2 to 7, against five patients dying every day at the government designated health settings during the same period in the province. 

Against the deaths of people isolated at homes, the tertiary care hospitals and some specially designed coronavirus treatment centres collectively reported 111 deaths since March 20 when the first coronavirus related death was reported in Sindh.

A hospital-wise breakdown of COVID-19 deaths was found as: DUHS Ojha Hospital (23), Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Karachi (21), Aga Khan University Hospital (20), Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (19), Indus Hospital (11), Civil Hospital Karachi (4), PNS Shifa (4), LUMHS Hospital Hyderabad (3), Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences, Khairpur (2), Combined Military Hospital Hyderabad (1), NICVD Karachi (1), Saifee Hospital Karachi (1) and Ziauddin Hospital Karachi (1). 

Commenting over the deaths at home, a couple of senior physicians accessed by this scribe, stated that at a time when there were less doctors to see more patients at hospitals thinking of any quality care delivery to people isolating at homes with coronavirus was not appropriate for the time being. 

A public sector physician, requesting anonymity, shared that the infected people preferred to stay at homes in view of factors including the impression that the hospitals were already saturated, the myth that the virus disease was a self-resolving issue, the apprehension that most of the hospitals were already being run in mess while lacking the expertise, willful staff and supporting intensive care units. 

However, by the time they decided to present themselves at hospitals it becomes too late, the doctor added, saying the way patients were being ‘monitored’ at homes also needed to be improved, while ensuring dignity and safety in the case of home-based patients and their family members. 

“The surveillance officer should know the art of pronouncing the emerging adversities among the patients in home isolation timely and have the ability of lining up the relevant corona treatment hospitals for a safe transportation of the patients to hospitals from homes.”

Dr Samreena Hashmi, a former president of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Sindh, observed that the comorbid like old age, diabetes, hypertension, previous lung diseases including bronchiectasis, and not an up to the mark maintenance of the coronavirus patients at homes were among the reasons behind their deaths. 

Moreover, they may have been in isolation at home as they don’t want to go into the government hospitals due to social pressures, bad conditions prevailing in those centres, which could be seen in different videos on social media, the senior physician, who had also been the head of the PMA’s science and research committee, remarked. 

In the meantime, the Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a message said that there were 5,858 people isolated at home for COVID-19 infections, while 683 were in isolation centres and 528 admitted at private and public hospitals. 

According to the official reports, two patients staying in home isolation died on May 3, another four on May 4, followed by four on May 5, four on May 6 and five on May 7. 

As per the health department’s daily corona summary updated on May 7 at 8 am, in all 14 COVID-19 patients died at homes and hospitals, four private and three public hospitals, taking the total number of deaths to 171. 

Of the deceased patients 12, including a female, in the age brackets of 57 to 81 died in Karachi hospitals, while one male of 62 years lost his life in Hyderabad and a female of 64 years died at Sukkur. 

In all 3,534 samples were tested during the last 24 hours ending at 8 am on May 7, out of which 453 were found positive for coronavirus, taking the tally of infection to 9,093 for the province. As many as 1,853 recovered from the diseases so far. 

The number of COVID-19 cases rose to 6,893 in Karachi, with 358 new infections and overall death tally 150 deaths. Larkana reported 35 new cases, followed by Khairpur (16) new cases, Sukkur (12), Hyderabad (9), Kahsmore (8), Sanghar (3), Tando Mohammad Khan (3), Jacobabad (2) while Shaheed Benazirabad, Sujawal, Kambar Shahdadkot, and Shikarpur reported new case each.

Aina Ayyam-e-Iqbal’s 2nd edition published

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The second edition of a book, chronicling the illustrious career of the legendary philosopher and poet, Sir Allama Muhammad Iqbal, titled ‘Aina Ayyam-e-Iqbal’ has recently been published by the Library Promotion Bureau (LPB). 

The book has been authored by Prof Dr Nasim Fatima, a former chairperson of the Library and Information Science department of the University of Karachi, while eminent intellectuals Dr Moinuddin Aqeel and Dr Farman Fatehpuri have contributed its foreword and preface respectively. 

The first edition of the book was published during the year of 1977 when the centennial birth anniversary was being celebrated with tremendous enthusiasm throughout Pakistan. 

The second edition of ‘Aina Ayyam-e-Iqbal’ is spread over 160 pages and the cover price of one copy of the book in Pakistan is Rs 350.

‘Aina Ayyam-e-Iqbal’ covers highlights of the personal, professional and political life of the Poet of the East and it has been regarded as a notable reference book about him.

Recalling Spanish flu, the worst pandemic in history

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

While these lines are being written the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, having taken the world by storm, has had 3,894,487 cases, causing 269,251 deaths while 1,332,687 people have recovered.

The clocks seem have turned back because there was a similar kind of pandemic almost a century ago which had devastated the whole world. 

Although there may be just a few survivors of the Spanish flu, which started in 1918 and ended in 1920, it’s still talked about as the most feared pandemic in human history. Many people thought those days that the world was on the verge of extinction. 

The Spanish flu had infected one third of the world's population, causing about 50 to 100 million deaths, equal to 3% to 5% of the population. Around 50 to 100 million people had perished worldwide died within two years and there was hopelessness and darkness all around.

Historically it was in September 1918 when the first signs of the impending disaster. 

The World War I was coming to an end and the jubilant people had assembled in England’s city of Manchester to greet Prime Minister Lloyd George at Albert Square. 

There was buzz and excitement as the Allied victory was being celebrated. But the evening turned sour when the Prime Minister suddenly had a sore throat, a high fever and lost consciousness. 

For the next 10 days, Prime Minister Lloyd George was isolated in a hospital room in Manchester. He could not walk and had to wear a breathing tube. 

The British press then hid all information out of fear that the Germans might use this to propagate the coup. Only the people closest to him knew how seriously ill the Prime Minister was.

The 55-year-old Prime Minister was fortunate to have survived many days of treatment but his people were not so lucky. 150 people in Manchester were reported to have died in just one week.

In 1918, the Spanish flu had killed 250,000 Britons. Young men, who did not die under gunfire of enemies, were getting killed by an influenza pandemic. 

About a century later, another sitting British Prime Minister of the same age, Boris Johnson, has survived a similar virus again after being in a very critical situation. Once more the people of Britain have died in large numbers. 

Going back to history, it was in May 1918, when King Alfonso XIII of Spain became infected, everyone still considered the Spanish flu a normal illness. They even told each other to gargle with salt water and quarantine themselves until the fever is over.

No one could imagine that in just two years, this flu would infect one third of the world's population, killing three to five times the number of soldiers killed during World War I. 

In the US, 28% of the population was infected and 675,000 died. Many Native American tribes were greatly affected, and even the Inuit and Alaska Aboriginal tribes were completely wiped out. 

50,000 Canadians were killed, 300,000 Brazilian people have died from the Spanish flu, including contemporary President Coleues Alves. In the UK, more than 250,000 people died while this figure in France is more than 400,000. In Japan more than 300,000 people died while in Indonesia as many as 1.5 million lives were lost.

India, under the British rule, was one of the countries to suffer the most when more than 17 million people died from the Spanish flu, equivalent to 5% of the total population.

Even in isolated countries like Tahiti, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand, the death toll was enormous. 13% of Tahiti's population died within a month. In Samoa, 38,000 people, or 22% of the population, was wiped out while 12,000 New Zealanders died in just six weeks. 

In 1919, when antibiotics and vaccines were not yet born, many believed that the Spanish flu would be the destruction of mankind, something that the world war had just ended. 

Despite its name, the flu had not originated in Spain. Because of this sensitive time, the World War I had just ended, so the warring parties were hiding information about the disease, making the neutral Spain become the first place in the world for the infected cases to be made public. 

The Spanish influenza had an extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and a mortality rate of about 10%-20%, while other types of flu were only about 0.1%. In particular, the main death victim of this flu was young people, aged 20-40 years old, who seemed to have the strongest immune system. 

The manifestations of the disease were hemorrhages in the nose, stomach and intestines, followed by hemorrhage and pleural effusion, causing the patient to drown by the internal fluids of their body.

Pakistan opts for partial lifting of lockdown from May 9

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Taking the cue from many countries in the region and in other parts of the world, having eased restrictions recently, Pakistan has also announced partial lifting of lockdown from May 9. 

“We have decided to partially open the lockdown on Saturday (May 9) just to facilitate the daily wagers and small businesses. We have to open the lockdown with great prudence. The success of this phase is linked with public cooperation and discipline,” Prime Minister Imran Khan declared said in his televised briefing, following the meeting of National Coordination Committee (NCC) on COVID-19, presided over by him, on May 7.

The meeting was attended by ministers for foreign affairs, economic affairs, information and broadcasting, federal education, aviation, industries and railway, advisors to the PM on finance and commerce, special assistants to the PM on health, information, overseas Pakistanis and social safety, and the National Disaster Management Authority chairman while the provincial chief ministers also participated in it using video link. 

Among the major decisions taken in the meeting included reopening of small markets in localities and rural areas, allowing businesses to open after Sehri till 17:00 hours, opening of selective OPDs (outdoor patient departments) at hospitals and closure of educational institutions until July 15. 

The partial lifting of countrywide lockdown from May 9 is meant to allow economic activity with strict adherence to safety measures by the people, who have been specifically advised to take all precautions at their workplaces and elsewhere to ensure their own protection and avert any sudden spike in the coronavirus cases.

Successful testing of Lahore Orange Train

By Masood Sattar Khan 
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan achieved yet another milestone when the country’s maiden Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT), built with the support of China, successfully completed its integrated testing and commissioning inspection in Lahore.

According to the details shared by the Chinese embassy in Islamabad on May 7, the integrated test and commissioning inspection for OLMT has been successfully completed and passed. The milestone had been achieved after a series of meetings and tests. 

The Chinese team, working on the project, was seen holding a banner inscribed with ‘Congratulations on passing test and Commissioning inspection for Lahore Metro Line project’ to celebrate the occasion. 

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Lt. General (rtd) Asim Salim Bajwa, in his twitter message announced that: “Held series of meetings, the whole team is working towards final commissioning of Orange Train.” 

“There is no political hindrance in its way. The project is Pakistan’s future as well as a tangible reality and no compromise will be made on it” he said while talking to a delegation of senior journalists. 

While keeping in view the Socio-economic development in the country, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being developed in all the four provinces under the CPEC.

The OLMT route begins at Ali Town and ends at the Dera Gujran/Ring Road Interchange with the stops being Ali Town, Raiwind Road, Thokar Niaz Baig, Multan Road, Chauburji, Lake Road, Ustadullah Bakhsh Road, GPO Chowk, Macleod Road, Nicholson Road, Boharwala Chowk, Sultanpura, GT Road and Dera Gujran/Ring Road Interchange. 

It may be recalled that the first test run of the train was held in May 2018 by the then Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif. 

The completion of project was delayed due to a combination of factors, including the objection raised on the project by the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan Mr. Justice Saqib Nisar. 

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Shibli Faraz, called on Chinese Ambassador Yao Jing in Islamabad. 

During the meeting, Ambassador Yao Jing assured Minister Shibli Faraz that China would keep up its support to Pakistan at this critical juncture of COVID-19.

Sindh government’s damage control dose

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Following criticism over the tragic death of a corona positive radiologist onboard an ambulance, the Sindh government has finally moved to a damage control on May 6.

The Sindh Health department placed the services of a junior doctor posted at the Civil Hospital Karachi in the wake of a report furnished by its emergently ordered fact finding committee regarding death of a corona positive patient, Dr Furqan ul Haq, a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Karachi. 

The committee, headed by Fayaz Hussain Abbasi, a special secretary at the health department, recommended initiation of disciplinary actions against a medical officer, saying that the doctor should have admitted Dr Furqan, a critically ill patient, even though he wanted to go somewhere else since there were nine vacant ICU beds in CHK.

“It was a misjudgment on his part and an act of omission rather than deliberate; despite all that, a patient lost his life.” 

In the findings section of the report, the committee reported that the emergency staff of CHK had referred the patient (Dr Furqan) to COVID-19 control room where the medical officer on duty, a grade-17 doctor) saw the patient. 

“Instead of admitting him, he advised him to contact the concerned doctor (an officer at another hospital) who had arranged a bed for him.” 

The death of the radiologist, Dr Furqan-ul-Haq, a retired officer of the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD), was highlighted by social media as well as television channels, claiming that he, onboard the ambulance, tried at a couple of hospitals for an intensive care intervention but failed. 

Earlier, the provincial government’s spokesperson had regretted the death of Dr Furqan at a press conference. Praising the efforts of his government related to coronavirus, he shared that the government has decided to purchase 250 disposable ventilators. 

On May 6, the Sindh health department also issued an advisory saying: Every COVID-19 positive case shall be at his or her liberty to be isolated either at home or isolation centre; None shall be forcefully shifted to isolation centre, if proper space is available in his/her residence and the patient or the family members agree to his/her home isolation. 

It was further said in the advisory that the COVID-19 patient was bound to strictly observe the SOPs narrated or explained by the healthcare providers for home isolation. “In case of any violation that exposes community to the infection then the patient shall be shifted to isolation centre.”

Coronavirus Update: No respite in Karachi

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Karachi witnessed no respite from coronavirus even after lockdown and strict restrictions as the health authorities confirmed 339 new infections and six deaths among the virus patients, including a young woman on May 6, taking the city’s COVID-19 infected people to 6,535. 

Karachi has reported 336 new cases every day on average during a period of April 30 to May 6, against the provincial daily average of 421 cases during the same period. 

The surge in new cases has created a fresh wave of panic among the citizens as they feel that government was failing to contain the disease in the megapolis while the number of relevant deaths involving young males and females was also on the rise. 

The government was urged to ensure improved care delivery to the patients, particularly those who are infected and keeping themselves in home-isolation. 

A medical practitioner said that efforts should be made to improve the overall patient recovery rate and come up with a strategy to overcome the patients receiving treatment at homes as they are sure to multiply the infection.

Prof Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, a senior microbiologist, observed that keeping the infected patients and treating them at home has reduced the huge load on inadequately equipped, untrained medical professionals who never had a chance to deal with such patients, but it’s not advisable any more. 

“The current style of confining COVID-19 positive cases at homes along with their family members is not advisable considering the nature of transmission and survival of the virus on surfaces, in the aerosols produced by talking, sneezing, coughing by the patients. It will be a great source of infection for the family as well as the neighboring community,” she elaborated. 

The professor further said that the home based coronavirus patients stay with a family 0f 5-10 people, in some cases older people over 60 years. 

“Think about katchi badis and hutments,” she added questioning that, having just 2-3 rooms in the homes, how could they be expected to contain the virus. 

She recommended immediate transfer of the patients from home to isolation wards with negative pressure in a hospital which has capacity to handle and treat such patients. All contacts of the patients should be tested for infection. 

An official report, updated on May 6, said that about 5,150 infected people were in home isolation, while around 750 were in the official isolation centres and about 600 were admitted at 31 corona designated health facilities across the province. 

The health department summary, released to media on May 6, stated that a total 1,731 coronavirus patients, including 730 at Karachi, have recovered from the disease. 

It further said that a total nine more COVID-19 patients lost their lives in four districts of Sindh, pushing the provincial tally of the disease deaths to 157. 

Though it refrained from details of hospitals where the deceased persons were receiving treatment the summary said that six persons, including two females, of ages ranging from 18 to 81 died at Karachi, while a 35-year-old man died at Shikarpur, one man of 42 years at Sanghar and another 65-year-old man lost his life in Badin. 

The number of COVID-19 cases rose to 8,640 for the province as 451 new infections were recorded during the 24 hours ending at 8 am on May 6. Karachi division reported 339 new cases, followed by Shikarpur (24), Sukkur (19), Shaheed Benazirabad (15), Ghotki (9), Larkana (6), Hyderabad (5) Sujawal (4) while Badin, Dadu, Mirpurkhas reported one case each. 

The overall number of samples tested rose to 72,544 samples as 3,671 more samples were tested for coronavirus on May 6. The overall COVID infection rate came as 11.91%.