KARACHI:The federal government, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, has deliberately ignored Sindh of due health funding to fight coronavirus despite its mega city generates about 70% revenue of the country and provides livelihood to millions of people from all the provinces, says Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sharmila Farooqui.
She said in a statement that Sindh had also not got ventilators and personal protective equipments from NDMA which it had announced. “There is no clue yet where these equipments are going? Sindh government is alone battling the virus across Sindh province despite limited resources as the PM Khan had ignored Karachi and other cities of Sindh which are facing double burden of diseases including coronavirus, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, viral hepatitis, cholera and others.
She said that the PM had promised a package of Rs162 billion for Karachi but there is no progress in this regard as yet. “The package announced recently by PM in view of coronavirus troubles is too low. Sindh is sole province which has taken coronavirus issue seriously by imposing lockdown in Karachi and other parts of Sindh to save millions of people of all provinces. This is time of the need, so the PM Khan should adopt a positive approach and help Sindh government to fight virus in Sindh, particularly Karachi, where number of cases is rising, she said.
The PPP leader said: “We need to protect our all medical force by providing them self-protective equipment against the coronavirus. Due to climate change, more viruses like corona could hit the world in future, so we should prepare to tackle any future possible catastrophe of the virus.”
She urged the federal government to devise a long-term strategy comprising multi-billion rupees funding to control all viral disease in Pakistan that has suffered a great deal from these infectious diseases. Emerging infectious diseases caused by viruses pose a serious threat to public health and economy in Pakistan because of limited health budgets, she said.
Time has come to shun all political differences so as to save country people from deadly viral diseases including novel coronavirus, she added. Sharmila said that the PM should set aside his political differences and address the problems being faced by the citizens of the city during the lockdown days.
She said that the Sindh government had completed several development projects for the metropolis despite lack of cooperation from the federal government. Sindh government had started all development schemes in Karachi with its own resources and completed them without any support from the federal government, she concluded.