KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has asked the Sindh government to come up with “a full plan in case the lockdown is prolonged” and warned he will not tolerate any shortfall in provision of assistance to those who are facing consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was government’s foremost responsibility to ensure that not a single citizen remains hungry, said the PPP chairman at a meeting on preparation of mechanism for providing assistance to daily-wagers held at Bilawal House on Sunday, according to a statement.

The meeting attended by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, ministers Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Imtiaz Sheikh, Murtaza Wahab, Saeed Ghani and Harris Gazdar on video link held detailed consultation on how to identify deserving persons and how to access them with targeted relief, said the statement.

“The chief minister informed Bilawal about the government’s performance so far in this regard and the PPP chairman directed him to reach house of every deserving person and provide him with ration,” it said.

Bilawal stressed the need for creating a system that helped the government, welfare organisations and philanthropists to work in unison to maximise relief efforts.

In this regard, he directed the Sindh government to immediately consult with donors and officials of welfare agencies and reach out to philanthropists to form a joint action plan.

He said in a message to philanthropists and welfare agencies that the Sindh government had prepared a plan of action and their help was needed to make it a success. “The charity and welfare organisations can be more effective if they work with the Sindh government,” the statement quoted the PPP chairman as saying.

“I call upon everyone to ‘help his neighbour’. This is a time of global crisis and it requires us to unite in our humanity. We are stronger together and must lift everyone else with us,” he said.

He said that all people had to be united to overcome and defeat this crisis. “The Sindh government should have a full plan in case the lockdown prolongs,” he added.

He appealed to general public to fully comply with the lockdown order because only with strict implementation of the preventive measures “can we cope with the coronavirus pandemic”.

Bilawal said that the most important thing for him was to safeguard people’s lives, and directed the Sindh government to screen a maximum number of suspected coronavirus patients in Sindh so that “we can save more lives”.

He showered praise on doctors and other medical staff at coronavirus emergency centres and hospitals who were risking their lives to keep others safe. “They deserve all the credit in the world,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020