PTI asks Sindh govt to review its decision to mull over lockdown in Karachi

Asking the Sindh government to review its decision to consider placing Karachi under a lockdown to contain the spread coronavirus, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers said on Thursday that the lockdown would affect millions of people, particularly daily-wagers.

Addressing a press conference in the Sindh Assembly, PTI Karachi president Khurram Sher Zaman said that the objective of the press conference was not to oppose the provincial government’s efforts but to show the party’s concerns that the decision to shut down the city would be a severe decision, as it would have a negative impact on the country’s economy.

He appreciated the efforts of the federal and provincial governments to contain the virus in the country. “Karachi runs the whole country and we should know the time period of the lockdown. At this stage, we don’t know when the coronavirus spread will stop,” he said.

“We just don’t want a situation where more people die from hunger than coronavirus,” Zaman added. He also asked Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to explain how they would distribute free food among millions of people in the city.

The PTI Karachi president said Prime Minister Imran Khan had been closely monitoring the situation on a daily basis and had established a fund to curb the pandemic. He said that the provincial government should know that the prime minister was also mainly focusing on Sindh.

Zaman said that the PTI and its lawmakers in the city had been helping the Sindh government’s efforts to fight against coronavirus. He asked the Sindh government to share its plans with opposition parties.

“The PTI is Karachi’s major stakeholder and the provincial government should take us into confidence when making decisions about the city,” he said, adding that the PTI’s lawmakers were ready to cooperate with the Sindh government to fight against the spread of the virus.

The MPA said some ministers in the Sindh cabinet had been issuing irrelevant and unnecessary statements and spreading panic among the residents. “For politics, they have an entire life. At this crucial time, they should avoid making statements,” he said.

Zaman was accompanied by PTI MNAs Saifur Rehman, Aslam Khan, Akram Cheema, Aftab Siddiqui, and Aftab Jahangir, and MPAs Saeed Afridi, Rabistan Khan, Jamal Siddiqui and Shehzad Qureshi.

Governor’s talk

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has said as a large number of people in the country are daily wage earners, the federal government is of the view that Pakistan cannot afford a harsh measure like lockdown against coronavirus as this will severely affect the poor who have scarce economic resources, adds our correspondent.

The governor was talking to media persons on Thursday after he visited the Jinnah International Airport Karachi where he reviewed steps taken on the airport premises to prevent the COVID-19 transmission.

The governor was briefed on the occasion about the steps taken for screening, detection and quarantine of the coronavirus patients at the airport.

The chief of the disinfection team of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Dr Asim Mahmood Khan, was also present on the occasion.

The governor said Prime Minister Imran Khan was personally reviewing the situation regarding the coronavirus spread in the country and the government had been taking steps to treat and rehabilitate the countrymen affected due to the viral outbreak.

He said the entire nation should stand united against the viral outbreak in the country, considering it as a natural calamity. He said one should not become fearful if he or she is quarantined as a precautionary step because there are more chances that the suspected patient would emerge healthy after observing the 14-day period of self-isolation.

He said observance of the self-isolation period was necessary for the suspected cases to prevent further spread of the viral outbreak among the local population.

The governor said the people should take all the required precautionary measures to contain the viral outbreak and avoid attending mass gatherings in order to minimise human physical contact. The people should also regularly wash their hands, he added.

To a question, he responded that testing kits to detect the coronavirus cases had become short all over the world. He said the federal government had provided 1,500 such testing kits to the Sindh government and hospitals of the province.

He said the NDMA would also provide hundreds of thousands of surgical masks to the people to prevent the viral outbreak. He said the NDMA was fully alert to deal with the situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.