Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday said that the reason lockdown has not been effective in curbing the spread of the coronavirus is due to ‘mixed signals’ from the federal government.
Addressing a press conference here, the chief minister said the federal government should lead from the front rather than leaving decision-making to the provincial governments. “The Covid-19 pandemic is not a provincial or a personal matter – I want to say this very clearly. We cannot make decisions in isolation because their consequences affect everybody,” he said, and lamented the fact that despite his repeated warnings, there has been a lot of back and forth from the Centre on how to effectively tackle the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The chief minister shared that he put Sindh’s concerns about the surge in cases in front of the federal government during the first meeting of the National Coordination Committee. “I had highly recommended a complete lockdown in the country, but my advice was ignored back then,” he said. “On April 1, the federal government had recommended extending the lockdown since it had helped us in controlling the situation. Following the meeting, the federal minister [Asad Umar] announced the extension of the lockdown, which made me happy that our suggestions were being considered,” he went on to say. “But the very next day, it was decided to ease the lockdown for industry in different provinces. They said it is up to each province to decide how to handle the situation,” he recalled.
On the subject of cash disbursement, Shah said the process was not effective. “Cash disbursement programs were conducted to avoid social interactions and crowds; however, at the end of the day, people ended up gathering in crowds to receive the funds,” he noted. “What was the purpose of lockdown if people gathered in huge crowds anyway,” he asked. “I agree that our economy has suffered the most due to the pandemic, but nothing is more important than human lives at the end of the day,” he remarked.
“Accusations are surfacing that while the PPP claims that they have distributed rations among the needy, there is no proof of them doing so. Nasir Shah and other provincial ministers have ensured that ration bags are delivered at home to the needy without inconvenience. Our target is to avoid crowds and practice social distancing,” he went on to say. “If the virus reaches rural areas, we may not be able to stem the spread since there are meagre resources and illiteracy in those areas, which will add to the challenges we face currently,” he added.
Shah maintained that the only way to effectively deal with the pandemic is to learn from the experiences of other countries around the world. “That’s what we did in Sindh, and we have been blamed for enforcing a lockdown without giving it much prior thought. There is no correct way to tackle the pandemic. But, the only way to do so is by taking action,” he said. “We will make mistakes [in the fight against the pandemic] but the biggest mistake is to not take any action at all,” he added.
Shah went on to say that the details of all contributions made to the provincial coronavirus emergency fund were available on the financial department’s website. “Our MPAs contributed their salaries towards this fund, and I am thankful to them for doing so,” he said. However, we are unable to procure items, he said. “We have asked for help from the federal government in this regard. The federal government is in a better position to bring in ventilators and personal protective equipment,” he said. “We are grateful for what they have done so far, but they have done very little,” he said. “Provincial governments can only do so much, all points lead back to the Centre,” he said. “If a provincial government can arrange 10,000 testing kits from day one, and an additional 50,000 after that, then we expect more from the federal government,” he added.
The chief minister also took the opportunity to tell Prime Minister Imran Khan to form a comprehensive national policy with regards to the outbreak. “We need a national narrative, or a national action plan regarding this,” he said. “We became one on the fight against terrorism after the APS attack. Are we still waiting for the same,” he asked. “We want PM Imran to lead. Do not allow for the lockdown to be compromised in any scenario. Do not say that provinces are free to decide, that will be more painful,” he concluded.
