No COVID-19 quarantine facility to be set up in Manghopir: Saeed Ghani

The Sindh government has assured the local Manghopir representatives that it will not establish any quarantine centre in Union Council 4, as keeping suspected patients of the coronavirus in the locality would be a risky proposition keeping in view the weak civic infrastructure of the area.

The assurance came as Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani met a three-member delegation, led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Qari Muhammad Usman, o Saturday. The delegation comprised Chairman Mufti Muhammad Khalid of UC 6 and youth councillor Abdullah Siddiqui.

The delegation was informed that the government would not transform the congregation area (Ijtima Gah) in the Manghopir area into a quarantine facility for lodging suspected cases of the coronavirus.

Ghani said the Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling part of the province, had always given importance to the aspirations of the people as all its decisions were taken to safeguard the public interests.

He said the coronavirus was a deadly epidemic and any carelessness shown in dealing with this emergency would lead to disastrous consequences for the masses.

He said the provincial government had been utilising whatever resources it had to further its campaign against the coronavirus emergency, but it was unfortunate that the cases of the deadly epidemic were still on the rise in the province.

He said the government was fully aware of the economic turmoil and hardships being faced by the masses due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, but all its decisions were meant to safeguard humanity and to meet related challenges faced by the public.

The minister expressed gratitude to the religious and political parties and people from different walks of life for lending fullest support to the lockdown measures of the government against the spread of the coronavirus.

Speaking on the occasion, the JUI leader expressed gratitude to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and his entire team for reversing his decision to establish a quarantine facility in the Manghopir area.

He said Manghopir had transformed into a densely populated slum nearby the city, but fundamental civic and municipal infrastructure and facilities were almost missing in the area. He said establishing the quarantine facility in such a shanty area could create serious repercussions for health of the residents.

He said utilising the congregational area of the locality for the purpose would be highly unsuitable as it held large congregations where hundreds of thousands of devotees from all over the city converged on a regular basis. The JUI leader said utilising such an area of religious importance would simply go against the sentiments of a large number of followers of Islam.

He said the provincial government while reversing its decision in view of the prevailing public sentiments had once again proved that its conduct was public friendly and magnanimous.

He held out the assurance that people and their elected local government representatives would fully adhere to the lockdown measures of the government to prevent the spread of the deadly viral epidemic.