‘Against Rs6 bn pledged to 20 lac families, Sindh offering only Rs 580m

SUKKUR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice President and parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, has asked the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to take practical and transparent steps for treatment, aggressive testing and provision of financial handouts to 20 lac families which, he claimed, has not so far been done through a politically-neutral mechanism.

Referring to a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Sindh governor, the PTI, alongside various national institutions, had pledged to stand by the Sindh government and fight alongside. Writing on behalf of the PTI MPAs in Sindh Assembly, Haleem said the massive mismanagement at the Sukkur Quarantine Centre led to protests, violating the quarantine protocols which led to spreading of the contagion among the negatives ones.

Dilating further, he said the prime minister of Pakistan had cautioned the whole nation that our resources were not the same as those of the developed world, therefore, we should be cautious in our decision-making, particularly for extended lockdowns.

Haleem said we still agreed to a lockdown, because the Sindh government seemed to have a plan which included that (i) All suspected patients will have access to an emergency number, which they could call and be tested at home. “You ensured that the Sindh governments resources will be provided both to government and private hospitals. (ii) The Sindh government will feed two million families under the lockdown, by sending them Rs3,000 each, through Easy Paisa or other similar mechanisms. At the same meeting, you recommended: Electricity and gas bills to be suspended for the poverty-stricken class, and landlords to suspend payments for tenants,” he said and added the Sindh government only had to use its authority to enforce these decisions without any funds.

The difference between the provincial and the federal government is that while Sindh govt announced deferring the utility bills of K Electric for which it had no authority. The federal government on the other hand approved a PKR 26 billion subsidy for K-Electric. As per K-Electric’s statement, the Sindh government had not cleared its pending dues that is essential to supply uninterrupted electricity to the city.