PML-Q's Tariq Basheer Cheema contracts coronavirus

PML-Q's Tariq Basheer Cheema has contracted the coronavirus, it emerged on Sunday.

He was admitted to the Pims hospital in Islamabad yesterday after testing positive.

Cheema is the Federal Minister for Housing and Works and his party is Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s key coalition partner at the Centre.

Cheema joins a long list of lawmakers to have contracted the contagious disease.

Six days ago, the Prime Minister Imran Khan's aide on health, Dr Zafar Mirza, also tested positive for COVID-19.

“I have tested positive for COVID-19. Under medical advice I have isolated myself at home and taking all precautions. I have mild symptoms. Please keep me in your kind prayers,” Mirza tweeted.

Earlier this month, foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also announced he had tested positive for coronavirus and that he has gone into self-isolation.

The foreign minister, in a tweet, said: “This afternoon I felt a slight fever and immediately quarantined myself at home. I have now tested positive for COVID- 19.”

“By the grace of Allah, I feel strong and energetic. I will continue to carry on my duties from home. Please keep me in your prayers,” he added.

Two weeks earlier, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) leader and Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haq tested positive for coronavirus.

A week prior to that, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said she has tested positive.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, PTI MNA Jai Prakash, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Minister of State for Narcotics Shehryar Afridi and PTI's chief whip in the National Assembly Aamir Dogar have also been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Previously, many politicians including PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, ANP’s Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Sindh education minister Saeed Ghani, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari had tested positive for coronavirus, after which they went into self-isolation and recovered.

PTI Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) in Punjab, Shaheen Raza, was the first lawmaker in the country to succumb to the virus.

PTI MPA Mian Jamsheduddin Kakakhel from Nowshera and PML-N MPA Shaukat Manzoor Cheema from Gujranwala also passed away last month after being on the ventilator for a few days.