ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has expressed concern over the way the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government is handling the situation after the coronavirus outbreak in the country and the party’s leaders belonging to three different provinces pointed out faults in arrangements made by local authorities for the virus-affected people.

Punjab PPP general secretary and former MNA Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed has highlighted “the poor conditions” at a quarantine centre set up by the Punjab health authorities in his native Kasur city, whereas another PPP leader from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and former deputy speaker Fasial Karim Kundi alleged that the provincial government had ignored the erstwhile tribal areas by not providing any facility to the people there.

Through a video message, Chaudhry Manzoor alleged that the Kasur quarantine centre could also serve as a coronavirus breeding epicentre like Taftan because of poor conditions there. He claimed that more than 100 Covid-19 suspects had been kept jointly at the centre instead of keeping them in isolation. He feared that even if one person tested positive for Covid-19, he might infect all others.

Chaudhry Manzoor posted a video clip of the quarantine centre showing people interacting with each other without any restriction.

By keeping all the suspects at one place, he said, the authorities were working against the basic concept of quarantine. He also claimed that not a single suspect had been tested for the virus till Monday evening, while doctors, paramedics and police deployed at the centre were devoid of personal protective equipment.

Party leaders point out faults in arrangements for affected people

He regretted that the provincial ministers were giving negative remarks for pointing out the issues of the Kasur quarantine centre.

In a statement issued by the PPP’s media centre here on Tuesday, PPP’s Faisal Karim Kundi regretted that the “Niazi government” had not been taking coronavirus seriously and the “selected prime minister is considering it a joke”.

Mr Kundi claimed that no quarantine centre had been set up in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). He ridiculed the provincial government and ministers for stating that a Facebook page had been made for the help of people, adding that the ministers perhaps did not know in which areas internet facility was available in the province. How could people get benefit from Facebook when they had no internet facility, he asked.

Meanwhile, PPP information secretary and MNA from Khairpur Dr Nafisa Shah said it was unfortunate that PM Khan could not understand the purpose and advantage of lockdown despite the fact that there was no other option to save people’s lives.

In a statement, Dr Shah said Mr Khan was insisting on his faulty policy because PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his team had been successful in the policy they adopted to deal with coronavirus and thus saved the nation from this virus in time.

“Imran Khan is telling lies to the nation with consistency and misguiding the people of Pakistan,” she alleged while responding to his recent addresses to the nation.

Dr Shah said Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite having the PTI’s governments did not follow PM Khan’s directives and lockdown was followed by both the provinces and thus the people of both the provinces were saved from Mr Khan’s antics.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2020