Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has lodged a strong protest against the complete apathy on the part of the federal government owing to which his government could not get support from the international aid agencies and other countries for the calamity-hit people of the province.
“I met diplomats of different countries here at the Chief Minister House to inform them about the widespread devastation caused by the heavy monsoon rains in the province as they said that they were unaware of the situation of the calamity in Sindh,” Shah said while speaking at an urgently convened press conference at the CM House, Karachi today.
He said that the concerned diplomats just required that the federal government of Pakistan as per the routine procedure should write to their respective countries about the disaster situation in Sindh so that foreign emergency aid could be arranged for the calamity-hit people of the province.
The CM said that he had written twice to Prime Minister Imran Khan about situation of calamity in Sindh after heavy monsoon rains last month but he had not get any response from the federal government.
He also complained that national television media in Pakistan had only focused on the devastation caused by heavy monsoon rains in Karachi as there had been no focus on the situation of calamity in rest of the province.
He said that both the federal government and national media had paid little to no attention at all to the disastrous situation in the province where there had been widespread damage to houses, livestock, standing crops, public, and private propertries, creating a situation of human catastrophe in several parts of Sindh.
The CM said that people had lost lives and suffered injuries in several districts of the province due to the calamity caused by unprecedented monsoon rains.
He said that support so far provided by the federally run National Disaster Management Authority to the calamity-hit districts of Sindh had been much meagre as compared to the federal government’s support during the floods of years 2010 and 2011 in Sindh.
COVID-19 situation
Sindh CM also said that his government would once again the review the situation of spread of coronavirus infection in Sindh before September 28, 2020 when the Class 6 to Class 8 would resume education in government-run and private schools in the province.
Sindh delayed resumption of Class 6 to 8 in the schools of the province by one week to September 28 after there is considerable increase in coronavirus infection rate in the province especially after the testing was done in the educational institutions.
The CM said that he would inform the federal government that his government would review the situation once more before the second phase of the reopening of educational institutions and would make decision on its own.
He earnestly appealed to the concerned parents that they should not become complacent as they had to make sure that their children wore masks when going to schools as a compulsory condition.
Shah said that his government had been doing its best to provide as much resources as much it could to the schools to beef up their arrangements against the spread of the coronavirus. “In this regard, 300,000 face masks have been provided to the provincial Education Department,” said the CM.
He said that health of the school going children should be protected at all costs.
He said that his government had been closely monitoring the situation of coronavirus spread after reopening of the educational institutions on September 15.
“A major health emergency will emerge in the province if we don’t take the safety precautions now in schools to protect the children against the viral disease. This emergency will be more disastrous than the academic loss the students have suffered due to the months-long closure of the educational institutions,” he said.
The CM said that every citizen should wear a mask against the COVID-19 infection as anybody who couldn’t afford the same should use a scarf or handkerchief for the purpose.
