PTI to launch campaign to fix Sindh govt’s hospitals

Showing their concerns over the worsening conditions at hospitals in Sindh, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders announced on Monday their party would initiate a campaign to fix the government hospitals across the province.

PTI Karachi President Khurrum Sher Zaman made this announcement at a press conference held at the Insaf House, saying that the campaign would be continued till the hospitals got better.

He showed his concerns over giving billions of rupees to private hospitals and non-governmental organisations, such as the Indus Hospital, instead of government hospitals, in the name of the ongoing coronavirus efforts.

“But in these hospitals, they are not providing any facilities and relief to the people who are affected by the virus,” said Zaman, who is also an MPA.

He said an audit of the Rs2.5 billion amount given to hospitals should be carried out in an impartial way. “There are no ventilators in Sindh. People are worried because health facilities for people suffering from ailments other than the coronavirus have been shut down,” he said. “We demand opening the out-patient departments (OPDs) for non-corona patients because they are suffering from other ailments .”

The PTI lawmaker said that they had a meeting with private hospital owners on Sunday. “We demand that there is one hospital in each district across the province to specifically deal with the coronavirus.”

Criticising Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani, Zaman said that a minister who could not remove donkeys from a school in his constituency had been talking about the health issues in the province.

He said his party had demanded of the provincial government to stop ministers who were not related to health from issuing statements. He suggested that the health minister should perform her duties.

Mentioning the death of a nine-year child of Larkana because of dog- bite, Zaman said the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government could not arrange vaccines for dog-bite victims in a year. “How can they battle the coronavirus pandemic?”

Questioning the authenticity of the coronavirus tests, he said residents of Khairpur district’s Pir Jo Goth tested positive for COVID-19 when they underwent tests at government hospitals. “When the people underwent tests at private labs, they tested negative.”

He said the PTI would not forgive the Sindh government on the health system. “The Sindh governmnet’s ministers sit on social media and talk and not bother to understand the situation on the ground.”

He also saluted the journalists for exposing the "corruption and bad governance" of the PPP's government. He paid tribute to all doctors and paramedics who were playing a role of frontline fighters against the coronavirus pandemic.

The MPA also said that all the three major hospitals of Karachi would be handed over to the federal government on July 1. “We will inquire about the billions of rupees spent on them and make accountable the people who embezzled the money.”

The PTI leader further said that after the passage of the 18th amendment, it was the responsibility of the Sindh government to fight the coronavirus and fix the hospitals, “but the prime minister is serving the whole country without any discrimination".

“Residents of the province have also been demanding of the federal government to ask the provincial government where they had spent billions of rupees given to it,” he said. “We will continue to make them realise."

He said PPP leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari should offer trillions of rupees to the people of Sindh in this critical time. “People are suffering from mental stress. Those people who are sitting on the right hand of the chief minister and Bilawal are in fact misleading them .The Sindh government is not following what the 18th amendment says.”

The 18th amendment does not stop the Sindh government from arranging dog-bite vaccines for the people, he said.

Dr Imran Ali Shah, an MPA, said every patient was not a patient of the coronavirus. "The virus has been spreading due to incompetence of the Sindh government. The war against the coronavirus is not over. We have to be careful. We also have to save the children and our elders.”

Dr Seema Zia, another PTI MPA, said her party would raise its voice loudly to highlight bad governance and incompetence of the provincial government. “It is a responsibility. The Sindh government has not launched a full-fledged campaign to limit the coronavirus spread,” she said.

“Masks are an important tool to stop coronavirus spread. The Sindh government has not given free masks to the people in Sindh.”

PTI Karachi spokesperson Jamal Siddiqui, MPAs Shehzad Qureshi Rabistan Khan, PTI leaders Capt (retd) Rizwan Khan, Imran Siddiqui, Gohar Khattak, Fiza Zeeshan, Tehmina Khattak, Iram Butt and others were also present on the occasion.