Ex-Pak PM tests COVID-19 positive

Islamabad, June 8 (IANS) Former Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was currently quarantined at his house, a PML-N official confirmed on Monday.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz spokesperson Maryam Aurangzeb confirmed that Abbasi, who was in office from August 2017 to May 2018, has contracted the virus, reports The Express Tribune.

PML-N chief Shahbaz Sharif expressed his concerns for Abbasi’s health, while Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani wished the former premier a speedy recovery.

On Sunday, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Sharjeel Memon also tested positive for the contagion. Memon is currently under self-isolation as well.

Memon, who has served as provincial minister in the past, is the Sindh government’s focal person for coronavirus in Hyderabad.

MQM lawmaker Shahana Ashar had also tested COVID-19 positive during the assembly session.

Last week, member of Punjab Assembly Shaukat Manzoor Cheema succumbed to the disease, after a month long battle with the deadly virus.

MPA in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mian Jamsheduddin Kakakhel, and Sindh human settlement minister Ghulam Murtaza Baloch also lost their lives to the virus in the same week.

Four other members of the K-P Assembly, Faisal Zeb Khan, Salahuddin Khan, Zeenat Bibi, and Jamshed Khan, also tested positive for the virus in the previous week.

On Sunday, Pakistan became the 14th country to cross the 100k mark for COVID-19 cases.

The nationwide tally currently stands at 103,671 and the virus has claimed at least 2,067 lives in the country.

–IANS

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