PTI leaders lambaste Sindh govt for lockdown orders

Expressing their displeasure at a recent video statement of two leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Nisar Ahmed Khuhro and Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio, leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in two separate press conferences on Thursday said the Sindh chief minister and his main advisers were telling lies to people because their entire politics depended on corruption, deception, and disinformation.

In a video message on Wednesday, Khuhro and Chandio had criticised the PTI central leadership, including Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Without naming the PPP’s two leaders, Haleem Adil Sheikh, a PTI central vice-president and the party’s parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, said at a press conference at the Insaf House that ‘jobs’ of both the leaders depended on using filthy language against the political opponents.

“One of them is from Larkana who was disqualified due to hiding information from the Election Commission and even in the holy month of Ramazan, he is in his usual condition. The second is from Hyderabad who seemed to be sleep-talking,” said Sheikh, who was flanked by PTI MNA Aftab Siddiqui and other leaders.

He said the PM was a great leader who enjoyed immense respect in the whole world. He also clarified that things attributed to Sindh Governor Imran Ismail by the PPP leaders were baseless. “The two leaders [of PPP] just told lies about the Sindh governor. It is unacceptable,” he said.

The PM had already given a package of Rs1,200 billion and now he had given another package of Rs75 billion for workers, Sheikh said, adding that the federal government was also supplying medical equipment to hospitals.

Advising PPP supremo Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to speak to Pakistani media instead of defaming Pakistan on foreign media, the PTI leader said the people of Sindh wanted to know what the PPP government had done for them.

He remarked that the Sindh chief minister was an expert actor. “Now PPP MPAs are hiding from people,” he said.

“The Sindh government is distributing expired items just for photo sessions. They also hold a photo session when distributing a couple of soap bars,” Sheikh said. “PTI MNA Siddiqui has distributed more rations than the whole Sindh government.”

According to the PTI leader, people, journalists, and even policemen are suffering due to the ban on pillion riding and even patients and women were not exempt from the ban.

Discussing the recently approved Sindh COVID-19 Emergency Relief Ordinance, Sheikh said the provincial government drafted it just to get applause even knowing that gas and electricity were federal subjects.

He said the Sindh CM wanted to create more chaos by promulgating the ordinance. “Tenants are being given an exemption but there should also be some incentives for the property owner,” he said while criticising the ordinance.

“Giving free rations to two million people proved to be a big lie of the Sindh government as poor people of Sindh are dying from hunger,” he said.

The PTI leader said that at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the province's largest government hospital, patients and dead bodies were kept together. “A few days ago, a patient jumped from the roof of JMPC to take his life. A case should be registered on this incident.”

Sheikh said the results of an investigation by the Federal Investigation Agency would soon make headlines.

He added that allowing the traders to carry out their businesses online was is a drama as traders were facing immense troubles. He alleged that the PPP was choking the economy of Pakistan in the name of lockdown in Karachi.

The PPP had once established the gang war in this megacity, the PTI leader said. “The Sindh government has not spent even one rupee out of budget. It is spending even from salaries and pension money.”

He went on to claim that the PPP workers were collecting extortion from poor people at the Ehsaas program centres.

Defending the Sindh governor, Sheikh said Ismail could have sit in the Governor House, but instead he preferred to visit these centres to stop the malpractices. “For it, we salute Governor Ismail,” he said.

The PTI leader maintained that several countries had started to lift and relax lockdowns but the Sindh CM was still spreading fear among the people. He also supported amending the 18th amendment and said that the provinces could not be run by weakening the federation.

MNA Siddiqui said the PTI had always talked about the rights of Sindh. “The PPP should stop playing the Sindh card. The Sindh governor has great sympathies with the people of Sindh.”

He also condemned Khuhro for his statement and declared that the PM was the leader of the Ummah.

Siddiqui said a conspiracy had been hatched up to destroy the economy of Karachi. He added that he had planned to give rations to thirty seven thousand people of his constituency.

Later, PTI Karachi President and MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman along with Karachi leaders of the PTI also spoke at a press conference at the Insaf House, condemning Khuhro’s video statement regarding the PTI top leadership.