The cyclical afflictions of natural pandemics after every 100 years since 1720 should have been a perfect casus belie for the world leaders to have been perpetually engaged in medical research and the building of health facilities. The loss of life during the plagues of 1720, cholera of 1820 and Influenza of 1920 devastated half of the human population. Though the major countries have since spent huge amounts of wealth and energy to develop antidotes for the epidemic afflictions erupting from time to time to menace the human life, however, the growing urge for military and economic aggrandizement and political dominance took hold of the world leaders plunging them into a schizophrenic race for building defence industries and developing dangerous weapons. The current coronavirus pandemic caught almost all the world leaders with their pants down driving them into a nervous and knee-jerk reaction to face the killer virus that is wreaking havoc in many countries. Every country is engaged in prophylactic measures to contain the devastation to be caused by the epidemic. These measures have slowed down economic activities and financial flows causing fears for famine and hunger. The leaders have to fight this war on three fronts: 1) continue efforts to develop a medicinal intervention; 2) to ensure their people do not die more of hunger; 3) to guard against any no chaos in the polity degenerating into panic buying, loot and plunder. These battles could only be fought by honing and harnessing all the levers of power, resources both material and manpower, rationing infrastructural facilities and equipment, pooling together national energy and intelligence and closely coordinating social welfare programs so as to reach maximum number of vulnerable families in a transparent manner. Since the federal democracies all over the world share powers with the federating units in all domains, their process of consultation and coordination suffers from an inherent sluggishness and inertia and comes as a handicap for leaders at the helm. No wonder that certain democracies took no time to assume authoritarian powers to invigorate their fight against the deadly virus. Pakistan being a federal democracy with provincial autonomy to the federal constituents suffers from this inherent handicap too. However, its difficulties are not as complex as those of India and some other large federal democracies where the federal authority has to deal with a large number of states. What we could claim is that the fissiparous and tendentious issues between the federation and the federating constituents in those countries are less serious than those in Pakistan. We have not been so successful in developing an impregnable sense of oneness or nationhood. In a state like this, the leaders at the helm have to talk, consult and coordinate constantly with the provincial administrations in both normal and emergent situations. Today, this close coordination is all the more imperative than any time in our history. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf is in power in the federation, Punjab, KPK and in coalition with Balochistan Awami Party in Balochistan whilst the opposition Pakistan People’s Party has its third consecutive administration in Sindh. The PPP administration has been subject to severe opprobrium for its incompetence, corruption and failure to protect the provincial lands and estates, improve the health care and education in the province and depoliticize the recruitments, transfers and postings and promotions in the administration. However, in the current fight against the coronavirus, the provincial administration of Syed Murad Ali Shah took the lead in initiating prophylactic measure locking down the province with closure of schools and inter-city transport to contain the monstrous virus in his land. With Goebbels in his cabinet leaving no stone unturned in presenting their boss as hero of the fight against coronavirus, Mr. Shah received premature accolades from the media. The lockdown did not really slow the spread of the affliction in Sindh but it has increased the number of the families vulnerable to unemployment and hunger. Factories, private universities, colleges and schools and small businesses have reportedly declared most of their staff redundant dispensing with their services. The provincial administration has yet to enforce labour laws to save these people from starvation. There have also been serious question marks on the provincial administration’s handling of the distribution of rations and disbursement of cash support to the poor in the province. The social media remains awash with tales of corruption and mismanagement by the provincial administration. The lockdown did not really slow the spread of the affliction in Sindh but it has increased the number of the families vulnerable to unemployment and hunger With the coronavirus afflictions on the rise, the Government of Sindh (GoS) and senior PPP leaders have been publicly charging the federal government for not cooperating with or helping the provincial administration contain the infections from the deadly virus. They hold the federal government responsible for shortage of masks, personal protection equipments (PPEs) for doctors, testing kits etc, although a few days ago, the provincial administration received a consignment of 200,000 of N-95 masks and tens of thousands of testing kits. There is confusion among the people whether the federal government’s support against the virus is extended directly to the provincial governments or through the respective Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs). Doctors in Balochistan protested against the GoB for want of masks and PPEs and it was shameful to see them being ruthlessly baton charged and locked up unlike the treatment meted out to them the world over. Later the PDMA provided them mask and PPEs. The Prime Minister should lead the nation from the front closely coordinating with all the Chief Ministers giving them no cause of friction at least in the pendency of this menacing danger. The people of Sindh have developed an impression that they were not being given importance by the federal authority ignoring them in the federal social welfare and economic uplift programmes. The provincial administration’s friction with the federal authority in the ongoing fight against coronavirus keeps on fueling this impression. The federal government will be better served if weekly updates regarding the aid and assistance extended to the provinces are made public. We can hardly afford to have any disharmony in this national endeavour. The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books