HYDERABAD: Local leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Jamaat-i-Islami on Thursday called for adopting social distancing, holding social counselling, raising healthcare awareness and maintaining coordination at the district administration level to contain local transmission of coronavirus (Covid-19).

MQM-P MNA Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani lamented that there was no coordination between the district administration and police, and the ruling party and MQM-P, to contain spread of the virus.

Distributing ration among the deserving people and daily-wage earners in the Hali Road area, he claimed the MQM-P never left people alone in testing times and the party was providing relief goods as a gesture of altruistic behaviour at a time when people had been left fed up with the confinement and deprived of a decent living.

He said the Sindh government just made tall claims, but no implementation of its decisions was seen in the current scenario.

The MNA said that avoiding large gatherings and ensuring social distancing could help reduce or even curb transmission rate of coronavirus while party’s union committee chairmen and activists were convincing people “to stay home and stay safe”.

He said the measures taken by the district administration were not suitable as quarantine centres were established in scattered areas of Hyderabad. A single quarantine centre could be set up in the Labour Colony flats which could be maintained properly, but the administration just wasted time.

He said the Sindh government was doing politics even in this situation as even government’s focal person for coronavirus MPA Sharjeel Inam Memon could not be approached.

Meanwhile, JI Hyderabad emir Hafiz Tahir Majeed said that people flouted lockdown as they were sitting on porches of houses and streets were flooded with boys and children where they were enjoying various games including cricket, football, chess, cards and others.

According to a JI statement, he said that old and aged men were engaged in gossip on streets and vehicular traffic was normal on roads. He said there were no clear-cut strategies of the government to cope with that new crisis which enveloped the entire world, including Pakistan.

People, he said, were standing in long queues in front of grocery shops and banks without adopting social distancing. They got together at places including Advani Gali, Fakir Ka Pir, Tower Market, Latifabad-5, 10, 11 and 12, fruit and vegetable markets and bazaars, he added. He criticised the government for imposing a ban on prayer congregations in mosques, leaving people to gather on main roads and in markets.

He said that there were no campaigns launched by the Hyderabad district administration to make people aware of Covid-19 through megaphones etc. He said people seemed unafraid of the virus which frustrated the entire world where many governments were taking serious steps to save their countrymen. But the epidemic appeared to be hearsay and humour in local congested areas, he added.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020