SHIKARPUR: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said that Sindh government should be ashamed of playing politics on Covid vaccine and accused Pakistan Peoples Party leaders of telling lies before media that their government is buying the boosters from its own resources while in reality it is receiving all the doses from the federal government.

Meanwhile, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, speaking on behalf of the Sindh government in Karachi, claimed that the centre was creating hurdles in the way of the provincial government where procurement of the vaccine was concerned.

The provincial government had not purchased even a single vial of vaccine to this day and like always it was waiting in queue to receive it from the federal government, said Asad Umar while addressing Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf workers’ convention at Sultankot, 10 kilometres from Shikarpur on Monday.

He said that whenever the federal government tried to carry out development works in Sindh or questioned performance of the provincial government the PPP leadership suddenly remembered the 18 Amendment.

Sindh govt spokesman says centre reluctant to let province procure vaccine

He said that the federal government had planned to execute development schemes in all provinces equally. “I am visiting all districts of Sindh on behalf of prime minister to survey and collect necessary data in this regard,” he said.

He criticised Sindh government and said that law and order conditions were going from bad to worse by day each passing day, especially in Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts and it appeared there was law of jungle in the province.

He said that the PPP leadership should stop crying about price hike and make efforts at the provincial level to control inflation because Sindh was self-sufficient in attaining food security through its rich agricultural resources.

He rejected rumours about the PTI government planning to impose governor’s rule in Sindh and said the rumours were being spread by the Sindh government to create an uncertain situation in the province.

He said in response to demands raised by Shikarpur PTI leader Agha Taimur Pathan that he would ask the prime minister to order an operation against criminal gangs operating in Shikarpur district in collusion with influential persons of the area.

Sindh govt’s view

As the first consignment of coronavirus vaccine landed in Islamabad, the federal government had showed reluctance to allow Sindh to procure the doses on its own, said a key official of the provincial cabinet on Monday fearing that the PTI administration in Islamabad was “again going to politicise” the handling of the pandemic.

Speaking in the Sindh Assembly Committee Room the provincial government spokesman Barrister Murtaza Wahab accused the PTI government at the centre of focusing more on political gains than health of people.

“The issue of purchase of coronavirus vaccine in Sindh is also going to be politicised [by the federal government],” he said. “The Sindh chief minister a few days again had sent a letter to the prime minister seeking [his] nod to procure the Covid-19 vaccine on its own so the vaccination process in the province could be expedited. Today [Monday] we received the reply from the federal government. They have showed reluctance arguing that the province cannot handle this and asked us to leave [it] to the federal government. However, they suggested that if the province insisted, it can be reviewed.”

He said that the federal government had announced setting aside $150 million for the procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine but it had not yet imported a single dose and all the recent consignments from China and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s doses were donated by the respective countries.

“The people of Pakistan are thankful to the UK and the Chinese governments, which are helping us,” said Barrister Wahab. “But the federal government should be ashamed that it has yet to spend a penny for the lives of millions of Pakistanis when the countries like India, Turkey and several other developing countries are importing vaccines on priority basis without making any political issue.”

PTI MPA accuses federal minister of favouritism

SUKKUR: PTI MPA Aslam Abro poured out his heart to Asad Umar at a reception he had hosted in his honour in Jacobabad late in the evening that Federal Minister for Privatisation Muhammedmian Soomro had given all contracts out of Rs400 million development package for Jacobabad to his “favourites” and grossly overlooked him and other party leaders.

He said that he had no other dispute with Soomro; he just wanted him to pay heed to residents of Jacobabad and listen to their problems. Soomro had come to Jacobabad after four months and earlier he had not come to the city for over 10 months, he said.

Umar said in response to the MPA’s complaints that since the dispute was about development work for Jacobabad he would soon bring Imran Khan to the city to announce development projects.

Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh also spoke at the programme but Mr Soomro was not invited to make a speech. The federal minister, however, went to Soomro’s residence afterwards.

At Jatoi House in Sukkur the federal minister told media persons that percentage of inflation had dropped and depreciation of rupee started under PML-N leader Miftah Ismail’s watch.

He said that Sindh government failed to complete K-IV scheme and now it would be completed by the centre in June and July. A wheat flour bag in Punjab was selling for Rs850 while it was being sold at Rs1,200 in Sindh, which begged the question why flour was so expensive in Sindh, he asked.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2021