Bilawal Bhutto Zardari asks Sindh govt to devise plan if lockdown prolongs

KARACHI: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that he will not tolerate any shortfall in terms of assistance to those who are dealing with the consequences of the current pandemic.

He gave the direction to the Sindh government to this effect and said that it was the government's responsibility to ensure that not a single citizen goes hungry. He expressed these views on Sunday in a meeting held at the Bilawal House, Karachi, regarding the mechanism of assistance to those who depend on daily wages.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Imtiaz Shaikh, Murtaza Wahab attended while Saeed Ghani and Harris Gazdar participated via video link. On the occasion, a detailed consultation was held to identify deserving persons and plans to access them with targeted relief activities.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was informed by Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah about the performance of the government in this regard. On the occasion, the PPP chairman directed the Sindh government to visit the house of every single deserving person and provide them with rations. He also stressed the need of creating a system that would help the government, welfare organisations and philanthropists to work in a coordinated manner to maximize the relief efforts.

In this regard, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari directed the Sindh government to immediately consult donors and officials of welfare agencies, and to reach out to philanthropists to formulate a joint action plan to carry out the relief work.

The PPP chairman, in a message to philanthropists and officials of welfare agencies, said that the Sindh government has carved out a plan of action and that their help was needed to make it successful. He said that charity and welfare organizations could be more effective by working with the Sindh government. "I call on everyone to help their neighbour. This is a time of global crisis and it requires us to unite the humanity. We are stronger together and must lift everyone else with us." The PPP chairman added that we all had to be united to overcome and control this crisis. He told the cabinet members of the Sindh government that the Sindh government should have a full-fledged plan in case the lockdown is prolonged in the province.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the most important thing for him was to secure the lives of the people in the province. He directed the Sindh government to carry out maximum screening of the suspected coronavirus patients in Sindh so that we could save more lives. He appealed to the public to fully comply with the lockdown, because only with complete implementation of the lockdown we can cope with the coronavirus epidemic.

"Our doctors at Corona Emergency Centers and Hospitals are risking their lives to keep our lives safe. They deserve all the credit in the world." He applauded doctors and other medical staffs for their fearless services.