Spokesperson for the Sindh government and Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Law, Environment, Climate Change, and Coastal Development Barrister Murtaza Wahab expressed regret that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s address to the nation was not a valuable address. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, he said that everyone knew what the coronavirus was, and what precautions one should take to keep himself safe from it. He said it was the time to tell the public that what effective measures were being adopted by the government to prevent the spread of the virus. He said the situation might have been different if the Centre had reacted timely and effectively by leaving Twitter and social media for a few days. Murtaza Wahab said that so far a total of 181 cases of coronavirus have been reported across Sindh, and every affected person had been placed in isolation. Of these 181 cases, 141 cases were reported in Sukkur, while 38 cases were reported in the rest of the province including Karachi, the provincial advisor said. He said that when the first case of the Corona virus was reported on February 26, 2020, the Sindh government had been working actively to control it since that day.
Explaining the details of the tests conducted to detect Coronavirus, Murtaza Wahab said that so far 844 tests had been conducted. He said that there were currently three centres in Karachi where these tests were being conducted. These centres included Aga Khan Hospital, Ojha Campus of Dow University and Indus Hospital. The Advisor further said that at present 506 tests had been done in Aga Khan Hospital, 61 in Ojha Campus of Dow University Hospital and 277 at Indus Hospital. Murtaza Wahab said that at present, 200 test kits had been transferred from Centre to Sindh, out of which 100 kits were given to Aga Khan Hospital and 100 to Ojha Campus of Dow University Hospital. In addition, Advisor Law said that Sindh government had imported kits from abroad for conducting ten thousand more tests. Speaking regarding the decisions taken at the meeting of the Task Force, Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that decisions were being implemented and that if anyone violated the directives then the Police would be ordered to take strict action against the violators. Referring to further decisions taken at the task force meeting, Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that the Chief Minister Sindh had set up a three billion rupees fund to tackle the spread of the Coronavirus, in which not only Chief Minister Sindh and his cabinet members would deposit a month’s salary, but the bureaucracy was also contributing. He said that in the present situation, extreme seriousness was needed at the government level. Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that in the current critical situation we should work to protect our people while avoiding politics and blame games. He said that there were probably some mistakes committed, but the Sindh government was working with sincere intention and passion to confront the emergency situation. Murtaza Wahab said some people keep on criticizing for no reason, so they could keep on, the Sindh government would do whatever it considered best for the health safety of the people. Responding to a question at, the Adviser said that the situation at Taftan border had been shown on the media repeatedly. “I will not say anything about this situation except that it is an emergency situation for all of us and we must resolve it together,” he said.
On the question asked about Halim Adil Shaikh, Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that if Imran Khan was asked who Halim Adil was, his reply would be that he did not know. He said that Halim Adil Shaikh should be ashamed of his statement. Barrister Murtaza Wahab while replying to a question advised to Federal Government to cut off train service and check with railways station plate form conditions due to corona virus outbreak, he concluded.
