PM Corona Relief Tiger Force attains international acclaim
The Force will provide volunteers to aid the police, civil servants and health officials.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Corona Relief Tiger Force, set up to ensure that standard operating procedures (SOPs) are followed during congregational prayers in mosques besides enforcing social distancing regulations at utility stores to check crowding and create awareness among the people in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, has attained international acclaim.
Daily Telegraph of the United Kingdom in a detailed piece has said that according to Pakistan s government, hundreds of thousands of young people who have registered for a new civil volunteer force will bring people power to tackle the pandemic.
The newspaper said that in a country badly short of money and with an underfunded health system, the government s idea is to tap into one of the biggest resources it does have – a youthful, patriotic population. Two-thirds of Pakistanis are aged under 30.
Daily Telegraph said that Corona Relief Tiger Force will provide masses of enthusiastic volunteers to aid the police, civil servants and health officials. Their tasks will range from ensuring social distancing rules are applied at mosques and government food shops, to helping hand out emergency cash payments to the poor.
“The prime minister decided in this corona crisis that we should engage our youth, which is the biggest asset of the country,” explained Usman Dar, Mr Khan s special adviser on youth affairs.
“He called for volunteer work and to be honest I was not personally expecting that such a huge number would come forward – more then one million young people registered themselves across Pakistan,” Usman Dar said.
Among the more than million who signed up for the Tigers force, are some 400,000 students, including 50,000 engineers, 45,000 teachers, and 5,000 or 6,000 lawyers. Of those million, some 30 per cent appear ready to turnout when they are contacted, Mr Dar said, with this month s Ramadan fast apparently putting many off.
