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Today's Paper | November 28, 2024

Published 16 Jun, 2020 07:03pm

Bilawal alleges federal govt 'listened to businessmen, elites and ATM machines'

PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the Sindh government was "clear about the challenge of Covid-19 from the very first day while the federal government has been the opposite".

"They are confused. We requested that World Health Organisation's guidelines be followed so that we can save the lives of our people. We have always said that our priority should've been to test on a war scale, and then trace contacts. That's how countries around the world defeated it.

"We were listening to doctors and nurses, the people who to this day are fighting this on the frontline. And the [federal] government was listening to businessmen, elites and ATM machines."

Bilawal gave the examples of China, Germany and New Zealand who he said took "quick and deliberate actions to stop local transmission after they had closed borders". He added that the government's "excuse" for not imposing a lockdown because it would increase poverty was "rubbish".

"We also have the example of poor countries like Vietnam. Not a single person died due to the virus in Vietnam because they fought like a unified nation. They traced every single positive case from the start and today, Vietnam has saved the lives of its people as well as its economy."

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