Federal and provincial government of Sindh is going in opposite directions which are causing inconvenience to masses. Government of Sindh has locked down entire Sindh while federal government has not yet decided to lock down and of the view that lock down would not be successful and create further economic woes. Provincial government of Sindh has made restrictions even harder i.e. all shops and petrol pumps are closed at 5 PM so that people might not leave their houses unnecessarily and stay at homes in isolation and committed to provide ration to needy people at their door step but a labour has committed suicide owing to lock down as he was unable to manage bread and butter for his family.
In this scenario when provincial government of Sindh is trying hard to observe a complete lock down in the province so that this lethal disease might not further spread but owing to federal government’s policy of not locking down, organizations working under the umbrella of federal government like banks and public sector organization are opened in Sindh thus destroying the government of Sindh’s policy of complete lock down. Government of Sindh has taken an extreme action to close down even Masjids for Friday’s congregational prayers and only allowed Masjid’s Imam, Moazin and Khadim with other two people to offer prayers just to prevent public gatherings while federal government has restricted number of people in Masjids. After the arrest of some Imams in Sindh now Masjids are kept closed for offering five times prayers as well in some of areas of Karachi.
It is seemed that the decision taken by provincial government of Sindh of locking down is pragmatic as rest of the world is doing same in order to inhibit further transmission of corona virus outbreak but the question is for how long government of Sindh could sustain and afford such lock down as people are badly suffering from lock down especially those who work on daily wages. If it is being waited for quarantine period to be completed of those who had entered into Sindh through taftan border then it would not serve the purpose as it is not yet ascertained and tested that who has been infected from them.
If actions are summarized taken by both governments then it would come out that undoubtedly both governments are taking measures to avoid maximum sufferings of the masses but it should be admitted that Pakistan is a poor country and is under the burden of heavy debt and owing to corona virus outbreak, economy of the country has already gone down so this country cannot afford to neither sustain such long lock down nor can afford to face demises of the people at large owing to pandemic disease. So it would be much better for both governments to come on one page and take decisions mutually by keeping political differences aside in larger interest of the nation. In times of hardship and any calamity unity matters while hardships and calamity would not last for good. Need of the hour is to take decision with concurrence of each other and adopt identical policy whether to lock down or not in order to tackle pandemic disease COVID-19.
