Govt not 'confused' over Covid-19 strategy: Imran.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday came down hard on opposition parties, saying said that Pakistan was at the verge of bankruptcy when he came to power.

Addressing the National Assembly session, the prime minister, while reacting to the criticism by opposition parties that the prime minister and his government was 'confused' on how to react to the pandemic, he issued a challenge to the detractors. "I want to challenge you to point out a single contradiction in my statements since we imposed the lockdown on March 13," he said. "Ever since the pandemic broke out in Pakistan, my government faced a lot of criticism for not imposing a complete lockdown across the country," he said, adding that the provincial governments criticised him and said that a stricter lockdown should have been imposed.

"We bore a lot of criticism in the beginning to impose a stricter lockdown. There was a lot of pressure on me. From my own people. From my own cabinet to impose something like India," said the prime minister. "It is being said again and again that there was confusion [in our coronavirus response]. Mr Speaker, if there was any government in the world that wasn't confused, it was ours. Since day one," he added.

The prime minister said people give the example of countries like New Zealand when talking about social distancing 'but New Zealand has social distancing already' with a low population density. On the other hand, Pakistan has a high population density and eight-nine people often live in one-room houses, he said. "I said from day one we had a dual problem; we had to save the people from corona and hunger, and those dying from poverty," he added, acknowledging that his government had to face "a...