Sindh chief minister lauds PM Khan for building consensus

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has lauded Prime Minister Imran Khan for building consensus among the provincial and federal governments regarding lockdown measures in the country.

Speaking at a press conference in Karachi, Shah said the decision that was taken during Wednesday’s meeting of the National Co-ordination Committee (NCC) was that the lockdown in the country should be extended.

“I am happy that the rest of the provinces decided to implement this. There are exceptions [to the lockdown], but they are calculated ones.”

A day earlier, Prime Minister Khan had announced that the restrictions imposed by the government on public gatherings, assemblies and the opening of educational institutions would remain in place for another two weeks.

Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar had also said that the government had “identified industries where there is a low risk of the virus spreading” and they will be allowed to operate with standard operating procedures in place.

In yesterday’s press conference, the Sindh chief minister said that while there was an agreement to extend the lockdown in the country, there were certain items on the agenda regarding which the provincial governments and the Centre did not see eye to eye.

“Some provinces and the federal government had wanted to reopen certain businesses. We opposed the idea for allowing tailors, electricians and plumbers to reopen their businesses,” he said.

However, we did concede that plumbers and electricians, that visit homes to provide services, will be allowed to work, after implementing the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the government, he said.

Shah’s remarks come just days after he lashed out at the federal government for its “mixed signals”, which he said made the lockdown imposed in the province ineffective.

But in sharp contrast to his earlier criticism, the chief minister conceded that “at first we did not understand why the construction industry needed to be opened”, but that in the briefing on Wednesday, the prime minister “explained that it was the second largest sector in Pakistan following agriculture”, and was crucial to the economy.

“Eventually all provinces agreed on easing some curbs.”

The chief minister said that citizens should refrain from thinking that the lockdown for the next two weeks had been eased. “It is a stricter lockdown. There are just a few exceptions.”

He said that according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Sindh was the only province that was conducting Covid-19 testing according to the guidelines issued by the UN health body.

“But if we feel as though some cases are slipping through the cracks, then I fear there are some cases that are going undetected.”