Lockdown in Sindh has to be relaxed in a gradual manner, says governor

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has said the lockdown regime in the province has to be relaxed in a gradual manner by the government, keeping in view the economic hardships of labourers and daily-wage earners.

He stated this on Saturday while talking to newsmen as he visited the head office of the Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement- Pakistan to personally review the process of ration distribution among needy families by the KKF during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The governor said he would personally go to all the charities and non-governmental organisations, which had been busy in providing food rations to needy families during the lockdown so as to properly appreciate the provision of such emergency services.

He said social welfare organisations had come forward on their own to help the needy families to lessen their sufferings. He said the KKF had been doing an excellent work as it had been providing food rations to needy families on a daily basis.

The governor said the Pakistani nation had shown excellent response in tackling the COVID-19 emergency while proving well its potential and passion to work collectively in such challenging situations.

He said there were certain low-income families, which despite massive economic sufferings in the present situation would not contact anyone to get assistance due to their own dignity, and the government and non-governmental organisations should preferably take care of such families.

Answering a question, he nullified the impression that cases of COVID-19 had increased in Pakistan due to the situation concerning pilgrims earlier quarantined at the Taftan border with Iran, saying that statistics were available to give clarity in this regard.

He said the MQM-Pakistan was one of the closest allies of the federal government and this alliance would continue in all the testing times to come.

Earlier, the governor visited the corona emergency command and control centre established at the Governor House. He was informed that the command and control centre had been receiving calls from all over the province to get emergency assistance to tackle the challenging situation regarding COVID-19.

The governor was told that so far the command and control centre had received 100,000 phone calls to get emergency assistance as work was in progress to resolve complaints related to 12,500 such phone calls.

Visits to Ehsaas centres

Earlier in the day, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail had said that personally he was against further prolonging the lockdown regime in the country beyond April 14 to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, saying that instead a strategic lockdown could be imposed to avoid crowds and large assemblies of people at public places.

He stated this while talking to newsmen as he visited three makeshift centres established in Karachi to disburse Ehsaas emergency cash assistance to the needy people during the lockdown.

These centres are established at the Federal Urdu University for Arts, Science, & Technology, Riaz Government Girls College, Liaquatabad, and the Government Girls Secondary Schools, Agra Taj Colony.

The governor said that prolonging the lockdown beyond April 14 would further exacerbate the hardships of the masses. He said that any extension of the lockdown orders should be done in a strategic manner to restrict gatherings of people at certain public places that witnessed large assemblies of people, including marriage halls.

The governor warned that strict action would be taken against the officials involved in distributing ration packs to needy people, comprising defective or expired edible items, and also against officers involved in undue deductions from Ehsaas emergency cash assistance to the needy families.

He said that some 17 first information reports had been lodged with the police against officials in certain districts of Sindh who were found involved in undue deductions of up to Rs100 from the Ehsaas emergency cash assistance to each of the needy persons.

He said that a similar warning had been issued to the deputy commissioner in District Thatta to act swiftly to stop distribution of ration packs containing expired food products in areas under his jurisdiction.

The governor said that he would also let the Sindh chief minister know about public complaints of similar nature regarding dispensation of the cash compensation or ration assistance to the needy families in the province.

He said that he was always ready to contact the federal government to serve the interests of Sindh being his own native province whose interest was very dear to him.

The governor added that the Sindh and federal governments were on the same page in the treatment of patients of coronavirus and also for providing ration assistance to the needy families during the lockdown.

He said the federal government had provided more assistance to Sindh than any other province against the COVID-19 emergency, and statistics of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) also corroborated this fact.

He said that he would also let the CM know about these statistics as he would duly inform the NDMA in case any discrepancy was pointed out regarding such facts and figures.

Ismail said that the provincial and federal governments had been collaborating with charities and NGOs so as to distribute food rations among 100 per cent needy families who had been hit hard due to the lockdown.

He said that he was yet to receive any draft of the ordinance prepared by the Sindh government to provide relief to the COVID emergency-hit masses in the province. He said that he would keep his comments on this issue reserved till the time he got the opportunity to read the draft of the ordinance in question.

He said that Ehsaas emergency cash assistance of Rs12,000 each to the needy persons was being given without any political discrimination in the most transparent manner. He said that for the purpose the cash assistance was being given to the bona fide needy persons registered with the government.

He advised the deserving families to get registered with the Ehsaas programme in the maximum number as the cash assistance being provided by the government under this arrangement would be helpful in overcoming their economic sufferings to a certain extent.

He appreciated the services of Dr Sania Nishtar in this regard as being the special assistant to the PM on social protection and poverty alleviation.

The governor said that he was visiting the centres of Ehsaas emergency cash assistance in Karachi on the directives of the prime minister so as to personally report to the PM on the arrangements being made to dispense cash support to the poor people.

He appreciated that the officials in Karachi had made special arrangements to observe social distancing during the distribution of the cash assistance to the needy persons.