Sindh Governor Imran Ismail on Friday said he had conveyed this clearly to the Sindh government that he would support whatever decision the provincial government would take to tackle the COVID-19 emergency in the province.
The governor was talking to media persons at a ceremony held at the Governor House to hand over 3,000 special protection suits for the staff deputed at the Field Isolation Centre at the Karachi Expo Centre.
Speaking on the occasion, Ismail said all the quarters should show maximum restraint and nobody should do politics on the issue of COVID-19 emergency. He was of the view that the provincial ministers should also realise the gravity of the situation while issuing statements on the COVID-19 emergency.
Welcoming the move of the Sindh government to allow small traders to carry out their businesses online during the COVID-19 lockdown, the governor said such a move would prove helpful for the revival of business activities in the province by 15 to 20 per cent.
Ismail expressed the hope that the Sindh government would allow extension in the duration of the business activities in the province during the coronavirus lockdown.
He said nobody could say with certainty whether the rate of COVID-19 infections would increase or go down in the next 15 to 20 days. “But whatever will be the situation, we have to remain alert as our hospitals lack the capacity to tackle spike in COVID-19 cases, in case this epidemic spreads further.”
He said countries like the United States, Italy, Iran, and others, which had been gravely affected due to the coronavirus epidemic, had started adopting the regime of ‘smart lockdown’ and the same pattern was now being followed by Pakistan.
The governor said Prime Minister Imran Khan from the day one of the COVID-19 emergency had been in favour of the smart lockdown regime in the country and a policy was being prepared in this regard in consultation with the provinces. He added that once formulated, the policy would be uniformly implemented all over the country.
Praising the doctors, paramedical staff and municipal workers for their service in the times of the epidemic, the governor said they were the front line soldiers against the war being waged against COVID-19. He said the government had been providing them special protective equipment.
Ismail claimed that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had given the maximum number of such special protective equipment to Sindh. He said the PM had been doing his level best to strike a balance in the nationwide efforts being made to protect health of the citizens and the steps being unfolded to revive the national economy during the coronavirus emergency, and imposing a smart lockdown was the right policy in this regard.
He added that the PM had announced a Rs1,200 billion special economic package for people who had been hit hard due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Meanwhile, talking to a delegation of a beauty parlours’ association, the governor said he had full realisation of the problems of the business community and felt the need for imposing a strategic lockdown in the country to allow businesses to operate with due observance of precautionary measures.
