Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Thursday asked the federal government to allow Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to resume domestic flights in order to facilitate parliamentarians’ travel during the coronavirus lockdown.
Sanjrani in a statement stressed the need for opening domestic flights to facilitate members of both houses of Parliament, who, he said, will have to travel to the capital to attend sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate.
He said domestic flight operations will have to be resumed with foolproof precautionary measures to avert the spread of the novel coronavirus.
While a National Assembly session is to be convened next week, the opposition a day earlier submitted a requisition to Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to call a session of the upper house of Parliament as well.
Some 34 senators signed the requisition, calling for discussions on the government’s strategy to cope with the coronavirus pandemic and a clear policy to tackle its adverse impact on the country’s sagging economy.
The agenda they have worked out also includes discussion on the impact of the deadly virus on national security and foreign policy, Indian atrocities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and discrimination being perpetrated against Indian Muslims in the neighbouring country.
Earlier, on May 5, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs, Babar Awan had released a video statement confirming that a national assembly session will be called this Monday, May 11 at 3 p.m.
