‘Sindh govt torturing Karachi’s residents for voting for PTI’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Haleem Adil Sheikh launched into a tirade of criticism against the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government on Sunday, alleging that the provincial government’s decision to shut Karachi was aimed at punishing Karachiites for voting the PTI in the 2018 General Election.

The PTI parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly demanded the resignation of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, accusing that the PPP tried to blame Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government a failure by closing the businesses in the metropolitan city.

Addressing a press conference at the Insaf House, Sheikh said the chief minister should focus on fulfilling the promises he made before enforcing the lockdown. The CM should take effective measures to provide healthcare facilities to the coronavirus patients, instead of “crying daily in the coronavirus bulletins run by the Chief Minister House”, he added.

The PTI leader said the prime minister had taken his cabinet into confidence about the relief work being carried out for the people and had distributed Rs44billion for the provision of facilities to the citizens.

Sheikh said Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani was making tall claims, but he would never like to tell people what his government had done for the labourers. He said the Sindh government had claimed that Rs3.35billion were spent in the coronavirus emergency and Rs20 million were spent again on ration.

“But on the ground, they have done nothing. Doctors and paramedics have not been provided with protective gears; the poor have not given ration to feed children,” he said.

Accusing the Sindh government of exaggerating the coronavirus situation and spreading unnecessary panic among the people, the PTI central vice president said positive results were being announced after conducting fake COVID-19 tests in Sindh.

Giving an example of Khairpur district’s Pir Jo Goth, Sheikh said 252 people were declared COVID-19 positive in the government tests. “After retesting from a private lab in Karachi, more than 150 among them were declared corona negative,” he said.

Sheikh said ventilators were available only for the rich, while the poor were being denied to avail the facility. He said masks were not given to the people in Sindh.

Graveyards

Sheikh said the Sindh government had set up a graveyard on eight acres for burying coronavirus victims. “But we fear that a village will be established next year on that land by selling it,” he said.

Citing an incident of the throwing of the body of a woman who died from coronavirus on the Northern Bypass, the PTI leader said the people who had money to bribe could shift bodies of their loved ones to the graveyard, while poor people were not being allowed to have the dead bodies of their relatives. He said there were SOPs for the dead bodies of both the poor and the rich.

Traders’ demands

Reiterating the party’s support to the traders’ demand to let them open businesses round the clock and seven days a week, Sheikh said huge crowds were gathering in markets because of limited working hours four days a week.

He demanded of the provincial government to allow traders to open their shops till 2am under the SOPs. “This is the Eid season and their demand should be accepted,” said Shiekh. He said it was the responsibility of the administration to run awareness programmes among the people to avoid gathering crowds. “The residents of Karachi are being punished and tortured for voting PTI through imposing the lockdown,” he said.

Public transport

Sheikh also asked the government to allow public transport under the SOPs to ease the suffering of the lower-income and working class. “Cars are allowed to run on the roads but public transport is banned.”

Expressing anger over the Sindh government’s announcement that public transport would be open after Eid, he asked how the workers would go to celebrate Eid with their families in their hometowns.

He asked the Sindh government to open both inter and intra-city public transport. He said the ministers and advisers who travelled in luxury vehicles had no right to oppose the resuming of the train services which was the right of for poor people.

Worshippers

Showing his concerns over not allowing people to pray in the holy month of Ramazan in the mosques, Sheikh said: “the people of Sindh should curse the provincial government for closing the mosques under a conspiracy”.

“As per the teachings of the Quran, closing mosques is cruelty, and the people who are closing the mosques would be disgraced,” he said. He asked why the mosques were not opened for the prayer goers under the SOPs.

The PTI leader also accused the Sindh government of creating sectarian disharmony. “First, they [government] did not give permission to Yaum-e-Ali processions and when the processions were carried out, they arrested people,” he said.

He said the prayers goers were suffering a lot in mosques and imambargahs. He said it was the duty of governments to do the job of firefighting but the Sindh government was adding fuel to fire.

He feared that sectarian riots could hit Sindh if these policies were continued. “We again demand of the government to open mosques under SOPs. The people will go to their mosques and offer prayers to control the pandemic.” He said it was a global pandemic and no religious party or group could be blamed for it.