When the world faces global pandemic, Pakistan experiences political tug of war between Federal and provincial government.
Coronavirus pandemic has shaken the global world order and it looks evident that the post-COVID world would be a different one than the one we used to dwell in before the pandemic.
In this scenario, it is direly needed to promote national unity on every front especially political one. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, federal government and provincial government of Sindh are engaged in a constant tussle. Federal government has announced a historic multi-billion Rupees relief package and also providing desired assistance to the provinces without fail. The Prime Minister Imran Khan has conveyed his vision of prioritizing the poors and the daily wage workers in the wake of nationwide lockdown as he showed excessive worry for the people who will lose their daily wage jobs and may face starvation. Prime Minister Imran Khan received global attention over his stance of not supporting a complete lockdown but an incremental one or what we call as “Smart lockdown”.
On the other hand, the government of Pakistan People’s Party in the province of Sindh is seen to be engaged in a relentless blame game targeting the federal government. Sindh was the first province which imposed a strict lockdown since March and ignored all sorts of concerns related to the worries of the daily wage workers, laborers, traders and others. The Chief Minister and his cabinet are also found criticizing the Prime Minister and federal government every now and then.
What we should recall is, this is the same Pakistan People’s Party which is in government since last 12 years and these years are considered to be worst in history as all the departments of the government are terribly devastated with tons of corruption and nepotism. The health system is the most effected system as the province doesn’t even have a sufficient amount of dog-bite vaccines and many kids have lost their lives due to the non-availability of vaccines in the cases of dog-bites. Nepotism is also a main reason which has gone side by side with corruption in order to shatter almost all major departments of the Sindh government. Dr. Azra Fazal Pechuho who is the current Health Minister of the province appears to be present nowhere in the current pandemic which should be considered as a criminal negligence and incompetence. She is the sister of the PPP’s Co-Chairman and former President Asif Ali Zardari. Interestingly, her husband Fazalullah Pechuho has been remained a powerful bureaucrat of the province and served as the Health Secretary. He is also facing charges in NAB in a case of missing dialysis machines when he was the Health Secretary.
The ruling party which has never given priority to the health sector and let the poor kids of the province die due to dog-bites is faking to be the most concerned by implementing a strict and unplanned lockdown in the province ignoring constant advices by the federal government to devise SOPs for incremental opening of businesses and trades in the province. It is to be noted that a country like Pakistan cannot afford a complete lockdown for months, it has to end otherwise it could have dangerous repercussions. The country’s economy also is not in a state which could bear the trade losses. It is the responsibility of the governments to devise comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures for opening the businesses and trades since there is no option of keeping them close for a longer period of time. The Sindh government is also threatening the traders and forcing them for the constant closure of their businesses which is leading towards an anarchic situation.
I hope that sanity prevails and both the governments come to terms in order to provide relief to its people and endure the tough time, the mankind faces.
Pakistan Zindabad!
