The Sindh government on Saturday issued an amended notification regarding Covid-19 restrictions in the province.
According to the fresh notification issued by the Sindh Home Department, inter-provincial public transport will continue its operations as per schedule in the province. Inter-city transport, however, will remain closed amid the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, read the notification.
Exams of Cambridge students will be held on 2nd of August as per schedule under strict adherence to Covid-19 SOPs and the students and the concerned officials are exempted from the coronavirus restriction, it added.
Meanwhile, the Sindh government lifted the ban on pillion riding, which was imposed as part of lockdown restrictions in the province.
Addressing the media in Karachi on Saturday afternoon, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Murtaza Wahab said the government is lifting the ban imposed on pillion riding in the province.
“Shops, hotels, wedding halls, or institutions violating [Covid] SOPs will be sealed for 30 days,” he warned.
While responding to criticism by some quarters of the federal government on the new lockdown, Wahab said, “This isn’t an issue of the economy, but of health; the focus should be on convincing people, not on encouraging chaos.”
“No one from PPP issued statements over the announcement to enforce a lockdown in Punjab. Those in Karachi could not comprehend the situation in Punjab and likewise, those in Islamabad can not comprehend Karachi’s ground realities.”
The spokesperson added that the provincial government intends to work along with the federal government and elaborated that CM Murad spoke with NCOC chief Asad Umar and SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan and “nowhere during the conversation did they object to a lockdown”.
“A matter related to humanity shouldn’t be turned into a political war; we must think about saving people from the disease,” he remarked.
Earlier on Friday, CM Murad Ali Shah had announced the imposition of a lockdown in the province till August 8 as cases had raised in the province and the port city – fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the pandemic.
Murad had announced that the aim of the lockdown was to reduce pressure on the hospitals and improve healthcare facilities, overcome the spread of the variant, and increase the number of vaccinations.
On Saturday, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised the federal government for its criticism of the lockdown in Sindh, saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers would be responsible if the Covid situation in Karachi became similar to India’s.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Bilawal said: “If coronavirus spreads in the province or in Karachi like [it did] in India then Khan sahab and his ministers will be responsible.”
He added that the current back and forth is sending a message of “not one but two Pakistans” and pointed out the lockdowns placed by the ruling party on various cities in Punjab in the wake of rising cases.
“They are undermining our efforts when in Karachi, the biggest economic capital of the country, the positivity rate is more than 30 percent,” he said.
Bilawal said the Delta variant was “100pc more infectious” compared to the original virus, adding that it was the federal government’s responsibility to take care of every citizen. “Instead of taking care of us […] we are being called jahil (illiterate).”
Bilawal hit back at the government for its cavalier attitude, adding that this demonstrated that the government wanted to politicise all issues, including people’s health and lives. “They are not ready to do anything themselves and don’t let anyone else do anything.”
Bilawal said if government ministers were not satisfied with the policies adopted by the province then they should’ve “stayed quiet” and tried to help. “Instead they are sabotaging the Sindh government’s steps to protect the people.”
He said the federal government had access to and looked at the same data available with the Sindh government including the extent of the disease spread in Karachi.
“They knew that the Sindh government would have to adopt such strictness. [Despite] this, people’s health and lives are being played with due to political reasons,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that the Sindh government’s unilateral decision of imposing a complete lockdown in the province was “unconstitutional” and it is bound to hit the country’s economy hard.
He was talking to a private television channel after visiting the residence of senior anchorperson Ajmal Jami and offered condolences over the sad demise of the latter’s mother. The information minister was accompanied by Minister of State for Information Farrukh Habib.
Asking the Sindh government to revisit its coronavirus policy in consultation with the federal government, he said that Karachi is a jugular vein of the country’s economy and the decision would have adverse effects on the entire country.
Fawad said that the decisions of the Sindh government to control coronavirus in the province has raised serious concerns, adding that a complete lockdown in Karachi would hurt the national economy and add to the miseries of the common man. He said a curfew-like situation in the country’s economic hub – Karachi – is unacceptable.
He asked the Sindh government to immediately lift the complete lockdown on the industrial sector, adding that the provincial government could not take unilateral decisions in the light of the Articles 149 and 151 of the Constitution and the verdicts of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Fawad said that the Sindh government could not ignore federal government and National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) directions, adding that no province had the right to introduce complete lockdown as the provinces were bound by law to follow the government policies in letter and spirit.
He said that complete lockdown would badly impact the daily wagers and labourers, adding that the industries, which had ensured 100 per cent vaccination of their workforce, should be exempted from the ban.
“The situation would have been different had the Sindh government implemented the coronavirus SOPs,” he said, stressing that the federal government had been extending full cooperation to the provincial administrations to curb coronavirus in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar urged the Sindh government to review its decisions regarding lockdown, especially those relating to closure of industries and transport.
In a series of tweets, the minister welcomed some changes by the provincial government in its Covid-19 related restrictions, but he said that there is need to bring further changes.
Asad hoped that the Sindh government would hold detailed consultations on all matters at a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sunday. He was confident that this would lead to a strategy wherein all pillars of the state could collectively protect the health and livelihoods of people of Sindh.
Asad said the NCOC is a national platform and its decisions are not politically motivated but these are solely meant for betterment of the nation.
Reacting to the Sindh notification, the NCOC announced that the federally-administered sectors will continue to operate in line with Covid-19 SOPs in the province.
“In addition to the exemption given to some sectors in the notification issued by the Sindh government, the following federally administered sectors will also continue to operate in accordance with the Covid-19 SOPs,” read a statement issued by the NCOC.
Earlier in the month, health experts had warned that the Eidul Azha holiday and elections in Azad Kashmir, both held in the month, could prove to be super spreader events.
Nationwide, Pakistan on Saturday reported 65 deaths and 4,950 new virus cases in the past 24 hours. The country has reported 1,029,811 confirmed cases and 23,360 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in February last year.
