KARACHI: A day after the federal government announced gradual lifting of lockdown from Saturday, the Sindh government on Friday blamed Islamabad for the country’s suffering due to the “delayed” decisions and warned that now the people would have to fight coronavirus for a long time.

In a statement, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah said the coronavirus had spread everywhere in the country and it was not going anywhere for a long time.

“We would have to fight it for a long time now along with doing our day-to-day affairs,” he said. “The Supreme Court has already noted that there should be a uniform policy on issues relating to coronavirus and the Sindh government is with the federal government in the wider interest of the people. It would be better for the people if we stay together in the time of pandemic.”

Separate SOPs being formulated

He said the separate sets of standard operating procedures (SOPs) were being formulated for each type of business, and all of them would be allowed to operate under the relevant SOPs.

If a uniform policy had been formulated, the minister said, the situation could have been completely different today.

SOPs are being formulated and businesses will be allowed to operate under them

“Unfortunately, the federal government did nothing for a long time after emergence of the first case of coronavirus in the country. But on the contrary, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah immediately set up a coronavirus task force, which included a team of medical experts and all the later decisions were taken on their advice. Today, all of us are suffering owing to the delayed decisions taken by the federal government,” he said.

He said there was criticism against the Sindh government’s decision to impose the lockdown but no one was discussing similar lockdowns in other provinces.

He questioned whether train services and flight operations were also suspended by the provincial government.

“We wanted to work with the federal government and we still want to work with them and don’t want to score any point on the issue of coronavirus,” he said.

The provincial government, he said, wanted the prime minister to lead on the issue of Covid-19 taking all the decisions in consultation with all stakeholders in the interest of the people.

He said the federal government had not allowed big shopping malls and commercial plazas to reopen.

He said the Sindh government was well aware of the problems of the business community but it had taken all the decisions keeping in view the coronavirus situation.

“We did not make the decision to close businesses happily but we had no other option,” the information minister said and appealed to the people to celebrate Eid with simplicity this year and spend more for the welfare of the people who had been affected severely by the lockdown.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020