Staff Reporter
Karachi
Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Saturday said the federal government was responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, criticising Prime Minister Imran Khan for his doublespeak on imposing a lockdown in the country.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi alongside Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani and other senior officials in the provincial government, Shah said:
“On the one hand the prime minister talked about the elites enforcing lockdowns. And then after a few hours, he praised his government’s decision to enforce a timely lockdown and spoke about the benefits of enforcing a strict lockdown. These are [his] double standards.”
Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that businesses were not more important than people’s lives. The provincial Information Minister said that the only reason for the spread of the Coronavirus across the country was the incompetence of the federal government.
The PPP leadership took the PTI-led government to task over its “non-seriousness” and the resultant delayed response to the prevailing coronavirus crisis in the country.
Nasir Hussain, addressing a press conference, said: “ Chairman PPP [Bilawal Bhutto] has spoken the truth […] He did not talk only about the situation of Sindh rather he reviewed the condition across Pakistan.”
He said that the federal leadership deviates from questions asked about its performance. “It is our right to ask for support and help from the government and during these situations they recall the 18th amendment,” he said, adding: “We reiterate these sort of things so that the federal government may take this situation more seriously.”
“When the first cases were identified — one each in Karachi and Islamabad — Sindh government on the instructions received from its chairman, started work immediately. The chief minister called meetings and set up a task force which comprised of medical experts and related departmental heads.”
“Meanwhile, the federal government’s seriousness was such that the first case was identified on February 26 and the prime minister called a meeting on March 13. Before that, the premier had only tweeted about the situation with no practical steps taken.”
The provincial minister also took PTI’s members in Sindh to task over their reactions to PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s press conference on Friday.
“When PPP leaders critique the performance of the federal government, they [PTI’s Sindh members] start distracting people by talking about irrelevant things.
“Chairman Bilawal spoke about all the provinces, not just Sindh. He only said that the federal government should support provinces. What’s wrong with that?” Shah inquired.
Referring to the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “non-serious”, Shah pointed out that lockdowns across the country were being followed until people started getting mixed messages from the Centre.
“Experts all around the world have concluded that enforcing effective lockdown is the only way to fight a lethal pandemic,” Shah said, as he urged the federal government to cooperate with Sindh.
