Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's Coronavirus Relief Fund is accepting donations from today (Wednesday) to help those "who have been made destitute by the lockdown" imposed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Taking to Twitter, Prime Minister Imran urged the nation to come forward and donate to the fund.

"[The fund] will be used to take care of all those who have been made destitute by the lockdown," he said.

To participate, citizens can send their donations to account number 4162786786 at the National Bank of Pakistan, Main Branch Karachi. For further details, citizens can visit the official website set up for the relief fund.

In addition to urging people to donate, the premier also called upon the youth to come forward and join the government's volunteer force to provide food items and other essentials to those who are struggling owing to the steps taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"I want our youth to play their role in helping our fight against Covid-19 by joining our Corona Tiger Force which will be organised to do Jihad against the suffering caused by this pandemic," he said in a tweet.

Those who wish to volunteer can register through the Prime Minister's Citizen Portal application.

 On Monday, the premier had said that that those depositing money in the fund would be given relaxation in taxes, adding that the money will be utilised to provide food and cash to 15 million people in need.

The prime minister had said Pakistan had to fight the war against the coronavirus with wisdom as the country did not have ample resources such as China and the United States.

The US, he had said, had allocated $2,000 billion to offset the impact of Covid-19, while Pakistan had earmarked only $8bn.

“But we have two other things with which it [Pakistan] can fight the deadly disease — power of faith and its youth.," he had said.

"We have faith that we can win it [war against disease] with unity and faith, one of the basic principles given to us by the Father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam, and we have second largest youth population in the world which will be used to assist the government and administration to overcome the disease,” he had said.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1545558/covid-19-relief-fund-pm-urges-people-to-donate-so-govt-can-take-care-of-those-in-need