Karachi, May 08, 2020 (PPI-OT): Sindh Minister for Information, Local Government, Housing and Town Planning, Religious Affairs, Forest and Wildlife Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that the Coronavirus had spread so badly everywhere in our country that we would had to fight it for a long time now along with performing day to day affairs of our lives.
The provincial Information minister said that just as the Supreme Court had said that there should be a uniform policy on issues related to Coronavirus, the Sindh government was with the federal government in the wider interest of the people, adding that, it would be better for the people if we were together in the time of pandemic. He said that separate standard operating procedures were being formulated for each type of business, and all businesses would be allowed to operate under the relevant standard operator procedures.
Shah said that the Sindh government had been saying from day one that, when the first case of Coronavirus appeared in the country, if a uniform policy had been formulated and an effective lock down had been implemented, the situation could had been completely different today.
The provincial information minister said that the federal government did not do anything for a long time after the emergence of the first case of Coronavirus in the country, but on the contrary, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, on the instructions of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, immediately formed a Coronavirus task force which included a team of medical experts, adding that, all the later decisions were taken on the advice of these medical experts. “Today all of us are suffering owing to the delayed decisions taken by the federal government,” he said.
The minister said that if the federal government had taken all the necessary decisions on time, instead of wasting time in criticizing the good deeds of the Sindh government, the situation would not be so serious today. The Information Minister said that there was a lot of criticism on why the Sindh government imposed the lockdown, but no one talked about who decided about imposing the lockdown in other provinces. He questioned whether the railway service and air service were also suspended by the Sindh government?
He said that when the Coronavirus started spreading in the country, it was at that time that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the Sindh government that it had to work together with the Prime Minister and the federal government. “We wanted to work with the federal government then, and we want to work with the federal government today, and we don’t want to score any points on the issue of Coronavirus,” he said.
Shah said that our position on controlling the spread of Coronavirus was very clear. The provincial Minister said that the Sindh government wanted the Prime Minister to lead on the issue of pandemic, adding that, all decisions should be taken in consultation in the interest of the people. The provincial Information Minister said that if people’s lives were saved, the economy would continue to recover.
He said that according to the federal government, if big shopping malls and commercial plazas were not be allowed to open, then what would open in a mega city like Karachi? Shah said that the Sindh government was well aware of the problems of the business community, but the government had taken all the decisions in the context of the situation. “We did not make the decision to close the businesses happily but we had no other option,” he said.
For more information, contact:
Sindh Information and Archives Department
Government of Sindh
95-Sindh Secretariat 4-B, Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92-21-99204423, +92-21-99204401
Email: pressinformationzubair@gmail.com
Website: http://sindhinformation.gos.pk