LARKANA: Amir Bak­hsh Bhutto, former president of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter, on Saturday criticised what he called the party’s “poor strategy” in dealing with the extraordinary situation arising out of coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Speaking to people after distributing relief goods among deserving villagers of Larkana district, he said the PTI government should have evolved a stable, strong and practicable strategy to deal with the critical situation being faced by daily wage earners — a big chunk of population surviving below the poverty line.

He said Pakistan was at present in the clutches of coronavirus and undergoing a lockdown, which had aggravated joblessness and was driving children into starvation.

Though the lockdown was the only way to fight the pandemic, it had compounded miseries of the poor daily wage earners.

Referring to the federal government’s measures against coronavirus spread, he said rulers had come out of slumber very late, adding that children of underprivileged people had already braved two weeks of starvation.

“Both the response and strategy are faulty and ineffective,” he said. Even after the government’s delayed response, its relief activities were directionless.

Mr Bhutto observed that the government’s indecision and confusion with regard to framing and implementing strategies appeared exposed.

Without naming anyone, he deplored that “publicity-hunger people” under false hopes were rubbing slat on the wounds of the poor.

“It is a huge task to address the extraordinary situation which only the state can cope with but even then, feeling our responsibility, we have come forward to provide relief to people in this difficult hour out of the stocks we have for future consumption,” he said.

Amir Bhutto said it was a gigantic task even for a multimillionaire to accomplish alone in one area. He prayed for an early end to the worst-ever crisis in the country.

He distributed relief goods (ration) among people in Mirpur Bhutto, Kot Illahi Bakhsh, Keti Mumtaz and Dodapur (Garhi Khero) villages.

Four more coronavirus-positive cases reported in Hyderabad

Four more coronavirus-positive cases were reported in Hyderabad on Saturday, raising total number of patients infected with the virus in the district to 155.

Presently, 85 patients are admitted to Kohsar isolation centre and one of them, who is a 79-year-old man, has been shifted to Liaquat University Hospital’s isolation ward where 17 Covid-19 patients are lodged. They are residents of Hyderabad and other districts, mostly members of Tableeghi Jamaat.

34 discharged from quarantine centre

LARKANA: Thirty-four people were discharged from quarantine centre at the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University campus near Arija on Saturday after they tested negative for coronavirus.

District health officer Dr Syed Athar Shah said that now only nine Covid-19 patients were quarantined at the centre. All the discharged persons were sent back to their respective areas in Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Qambar-Shahdadkot and Khanewal, he said.

He said in letters to DHOs concerned that all the discharged persons had travel history and they had completed their 14 days at the quarantine centre with no symptoms.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020