KARACHI: The Sindh government on Saturday warned that the pace of spread of coronavirus in the province, particularly in Karachi, had left few options for the administration and if any decision would be made this time to save lives of the people, “it would be tougher and stricter than the previous ones”.

The provincial government of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) also accused the traders and business community of backing out from their commitment about implementation of the standard operation procedures (SOPs) while running their operation.

“The traders’ community before Eid assured us that they would run the business in accordance with the SOPs,” said Sindh Information and Local Bodies Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah. “But unfortunately this is not the case. The people are not taking the coronavirus seriously and the negligence could lead to unbearable consequences. The Sindh government would adopt every preventive step in order to save the lives and if any decision would be made this time, it would be stricter than the previous ones.”

Later, addressing a press conference along with Adviser to the Chief Minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the information minister rejected the federal budget saying that the serious challenges being faced by the country were not given any importance by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government.

“The PTI government has presented a traditional budget. This is the anti-people budget prepared by the International Monetary Fund. The PTI budget has only hurt the common man. It is a great surprise that even in such an era of inflation, the PTI has not increased the salaries or pensions of government employees,” he said.

Rejects federal budget as anti-people, prepared by IMF

Answering a query, Barrister Wahab said the Sindh government was currently keeping its focus on curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

“All hospitals, including the Lyari General Hospital and Civil Hospital, are being upgraded,” he said and added that health would be the key focus of the provincial administration in the upcoming budget.

He questioned why the recovery targets of those who lifted the lockdown in the name of economy and labourers could not be met.

“On one hand, the federal government is not helping the Sindh government and, on the other, it is creating every possible chaos by putting obstacles in the smooth working of the provincial government,” said Mr Wahab.

Replying to a question, Mr Shah said the federal budget was very disappointing. It was also possible that a mini or supplementary budget be presented before the nation in the next few months.

“The federal government has paid Rs234 billion less than the total share of the Sindh government even during the current financial year. There were many tragedies, including floods and war on terror in this country, but the low recovery last year under the PTI government in terms of percentage is unprecedented in the history of Pakistan,” he said.

“In fact it is the incompetence of the federal government that it has not been able to fulfil any of its promises and has not been able to achieve any target.

The federal budget is nothing but a game of words and numbers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020