Skip to main content

Pakistani diaspora in US to help with ventilators

WASHINGTON: Pakistani physicians based in the United States are being asked to finance the purchase of ventilators from China to help their country of origin amid the coronavirus outbreak, said an embassy official on Monday.

“They are on the forefront in the fight against this disease in the United States and are also willing to do whatever they can to help the country of their origin,” Pakistan ambassador Asad Majeed Khan told Dawn.

Like the rest of the international community, Pakistan also needs medical supplies, particularly ventilators, to deal with this crisis, as it has only a few thousands of these life-saving instruments. One option was to urge the US government to send some ventilators to Pakistan.

“But we realise that there’s an acute shortage of ventilators in the United States as well,” he said. “So, we are asking Pakistani physicians and others to finance the purchase of ventilators from China.”

APPNA, an organisation representing Pakistani physicians in North America, has contacted suppliers in China for buying ventilators for Pakistan.

APPNA has also opened a command centre in Lahore for providing N-95 and KN-95 masks, protective gowns and other equipment to doctors in Pakistan.

Stranded Pakistanis

In the US, the Pakistani embassy is working with APPNA and Pakistani restaurants to provide free meals to those stranded because of the lockdown.

“We are working with the US officials to send those Pakistanis home on first available flights,” said the ambassador. “And we are also working with the US Embassy in Islamabad to bring back Pakistani-Americans stranded there.”

The Pakistanis stranded in the US were also concerned about their visas, which would expire if they continued to stay. “We contacted US State Department officials on this issue and they assured us that those stranded in the US because of this epidemic will get a 180-day grace period,” he said.

For those Pakistani students who were in the US on scholarships and needed to return, “the embassy will arrange flights for their return”, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2020



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2wFBtLd
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trump says he urged team to ‘slow’ COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered. The president has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of diagnostic tests. At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.” The United States — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, placing it outside the top 20 countries in the world, per capita. “Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.” It was not clear from Trump’s tone if he was playing to the crowd, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

IS confirms Baghdadi’s death, vows revenge

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.—AP BEIRUT: The Islamic State militant group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement on Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. “We mourn you ... commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi — presented as the group’s new spokesman — in an audio statement. Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s province of Idlib on Sunday. The group also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. The statement said the group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death. “The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed” on a replacement, said the seven-minute message. Little is known abou...
Post a Comment
Read more