Daily Times

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz on Saturday said the Sindh government was free to take any decision about ending or extending the lockdown in the province.

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and his party’s Sindh government, he said, should not blame the federation for their own failures. Instead of political point scoring they should focus on controlling the coronavirus in the province, the minister said in a statement.

Shibli Faraz asked Bilawal Bhutto Zardari not to ruin the atmosphere of national unity and cohesion only to keep himself in politics. Bilawal and his provincial ministers, he said, were holding long press conferences instead of working to stem the deadly virus. “The opposition should support Prime Minister Imran Khan in the war against coronavirus instead of doing petty politics.”

He said they were not acknowledging the support given by the Federation to Sindh to control the pandemic. Over 45,000 Sindh industrial and 717,000 commercial consumers were given relief in electricity bills. Similarly, small business owners were also given the same facility in paying their bills. Moreover the people of Sindh, like other parts of the country, were benefited through the Utility Stores, Senator Shibli Faraz said.

The minister said the State Bank of Pakistan’s Deferred Scheme had facilitated in the repayment of loan instalments, which would also benefit the people of Sindh.

He said a Rs 1.2 trillion support stimulus package would be given to all the provinces, including Sindh. Moreover small traders and business owners had been given a relief package to pay the salaries of their workers and under the Ehsaas Cash Emergency Programme, Rs. 27 billion had been distributed in Sindh so far.

The Sindh government, he said, had also been provided 504,447 face masks, 290,986 surgical masks, 30,142 N95 masks, 203,840 KN 95 masks and 148,334 protective suits by the Federation.

The equipment supplied by the Federal Government also included 77,992 testing kits, 200 thermal guns, 25,000 VTM and PCR machines, Senator Shibli Faraz said.

The federal government, he said, had also provided a large number of hand sanitizers, hand wash, soap, chemical sprays, bio-hazard bags, safety boxes and body bags to the Sindh Government.

Meanwhile, 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. He also criticised 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.”

The provincial minister also took PTI’s members in Sindh to task over their reactions to PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s press conference from yesterday. “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.