The newly registered Pejuang bloc today voiced hope that the government will empower its plan for a National Recovery Council in the special parliamentary sitting at the end of the month.

Its founder, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said the council would comprise experts from a variety of fields including health, economy and sociology, and would act primarily as the nation’s Covid-19 exit strategy.

“This council should not be influenced by any political party,” he said, adding that measures would be taken by experts in order to reduce the number of daily Covid-19 cases.

“That is the intention behind this council.”

He said while the council proposed by Pejuang was similar to Putrajaya’s National Recovery Plan, the latter had failed to reduce the number of Covid-19 infections.

“Though the government has its own recovery plan, what we can say is the government failed to solve the crisis.

“We believe we have our ways that can be used and proposed in the meeting, and the plan can help to fight the pandemic,” he said.

Mahathir also said that he had met with Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz on Monday and offered him advice on how to handle the Covid-19 crisis.

He said Zafrul, who has been tasked with coordinating the National Recovery Plan, had met him to seek his advice and suggestions on how to curb the daily increase in infections.

“Politics is not my priority, the fate of our people is, so I told him everything I know.

“Though he is from the government, it didn’t matter to me,” Mahathir said.

He also said Pejuang had yet to decide whether to attend the upcoming Parliament sitting, adding that it will depend on whether the speaker allows them to debate their plan.

“We want to know whether we will be allowed to debate and propose in the sitting,” he said.

“If we are allowed to propose our plan, we will attend the sitting. If not, we will decide whether to attend. We have yet to decide on this.”