HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Deputy Comm­issioner Aisha Abro was transferred on Tuesday by Sindh government following administrative chaos that had gripped Hyderabad, the second largest city of Sindh, ever since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic about a fortnight ago, according to a notification.

She has been posted in education department. The officer was the first female ever posted in Hyderabad as DC but she could not handle the situation effectively. As a spike in positive cases of virus was reported, Coivd-19 situation started worsening.

She is a BS-18 officer of the Pakistan Adminis­trative Services Group and had issued explanation to Liaquat University Hospital’s medical superintendent Dr Mazhar Kalhoro — a BS-20 officer — in the backdrop of death of a resident of Hussainabad whose death was declared the first from coronavirus in Hyderabad.

She had asked the MS to explain why he did not accompany the body. When he tried to talk to her, he was asked to coordinate with tapedar, which he did. He has submitted his reply to explanation.

Even Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was misled in video conference on Friday when he was told that 19 corona-positive patients had gone missing in Jamshoro where they were sent for test. It was in fact lack of preparedness and missing coordination between different stakeholders that such misleading statement was given to the CM inviting his ire.

Until a few days back, the administration did not have complete figures of positive coronavirus patients whose tests had been conducted in Hyderabad and Karachi. They were kept with suspected patients at different facilities although they were to be kept in isolation ward and should not have been mixed with suspected patients in quarantine centres. Her posting was claimed to a political favour.

Another administrative lapse for which she blamed Hyderabad police was looting of a ration-laden vehicle two days back in Latifabad. The ration was to be delivered to assistant commissioner Qasimabad in Niaz Stadium but neither DC nor AC or the vendor himself sought security from police or Rangers. The vendor transported the goods to Niaz Stadium which according to him was intercepted by armed men who took the vehicle to Hussainabad where it was looted.

Fuad Ghaffar Soomro, a BS-19 officer of Pakistan Administrative Services Group, has been posted as the Hyderabad DC. He is son of former Hyderabad commissioner Abdul Ghaffar Soomro. He is recently promoted in BS-19 and would take charge on Wednesday.

JI offers support to govt in relief work

NAWABSHAH: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Sindh emir Mohammed Hussain Mehanti has said that they are waiting for a government call for providing their [JI] support to the poor people through JI’s welfare wing.

He was talking to reporters after handing over personal protective equipment (PPE) and other preventive items to the medical superintendent at Peoples Medical University Hospital Nawabshah on Tuesday.

Answering a question about the government’s claim that it had taken all welfare organisations and NGOs on board for help and rehabilitation of poor people during the lockdown, he said that they had not received any call from the government and were waiting for it so people at large might be provided maximum relief during this crucial time.

He said the government claimed that it was working efficiently, but it could not be seen on the ground and there was need for a joint effort to overcome the situation.

Mr Mehanti said the JI and its welfare wing Al Khidmat were actively working and providing all possible support to the deserving people. Food and other essential items were being delivered at the doorsteps of needy persons without compromising their self-respect, he said.

He insisted on the need of working more effectively by preparing lists and providing basic needs of people all over the country.

JI Nawabshah emir Suroor Ahmed Qureshi and district Al Khidmat president Eng Abdul Wahab accompanied him during the visit to the hospital.

Haris decry plight, miseries

The Hari Welfare Association (HWA) has expressed concern over increase in the plight and miseries of peasants and daily-wage earners in the rural parts of Sindh during the lockdown implemented in the province to contain the spread of coronavirus.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, it was said that the Hari body feared that if the lockdown continued without provision of food and other relief to peasants and daily wage earners in rural parts, the conditions might become like Tharparkar where daily children reportedly die from hunger and poverty in the absence of health services. The association regretted that initially the ration support provided was inadequate and failed to help a single family for one week whereas economic activities had been suspended for around two weeks.

Welcoming Sindh government’s certain welfare efforts, it regretted that the composition of relief committees at the district, taluka, union council (UC) and ward levels were under political influence.

It said that as per Sindh government’s policy, minimum wage for workers was Rs17,500 each, but it had promised to give only Rs2,000 for a month-long lockdown. Majority of the peasants were looking towards the government for support in threshing wheat crop.

The Hari body also said that the committees had neglected the genuine poor peasants and daily-wage workers, but the families with political links and support were provided with some ration.

The body said that it had assessed that not more than five per cent of families, who had political links, were receiving ration and financial support if there was any.

Demanding the amount equal to the minimum wage for a labourer, it pointed out that the sanitary workers, who worked in quarantine centres in Sindh of rural towns, were not supplied with safety kits, exposing them to a higher risk.

It said peasants’ products were sold at the lowest prices, but agriculture inputs’ prices were higher. The cost of threshing wheat had doubled because of non-availability of tractors and threshers, it added.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2020