PTI's Khurrum Sher Zaman ratchets up tensions, calls for Sindh health minister's resignation

KARACHI: PTI leader Khurrum Sher Zaman on Tuesday ratcheted up tensions between the Centre and the government of Sindh, calling for the resignation of the provincial health minister, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho.

Zaman, a leader of the ruling PTI's Karachi chapter, said Dr Pechuho went into quarantine just as the coronavirus pandemic surfaced in Pakistan on February 26. Incidents at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and Dr Ruth K. M. Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi are "sources of embarrassment to the government", he added.

"We're continuously telling the government of Sindh not to spread fear among the people," he commented, adding that the province's biggest hospitals did not have facilities to treat people.

'Under the guise of 18th Amendment'

"Every patient is being categorised as a corona patient," he added but did not provide any basis for his claim.

"The government of Sindh has forgotten its responsibilities under the guise of the 18th Amendment," the PTI leader said, noting that a health emergency should be declared in Sindh and the relevant minister — Dr Pechuho — removed.

Also read: PTI leader Zaman asks Sindh govt to let transporters resume services

Zaman had last week said his party would continue to raise its voice against "every wrongdoing" of the Sindh government, demanding that the province allow the transporters to resume their services after their delegation met him to discuss the imposition of the virus lockdown.

Karachi 'on the verge of destruction'

He had alleged that the government of Sindh had not taken its federal counterpart on board before announcing the lockdown. "Now they are facing public criticism. Each of their strategy, including the distribution of rations, has miserably failed.

"Every citizen of Sindh is disappointed with their attitude. Karachi is on the verge of destruction,” he had claimed. "The attitude of the government is turning cruel day by day.”

Read more: PTI urges Sindh to consider easing down lockdown, announce post April 14 strategy

He had further claimed that the Sindh police was exploiting the situation, extorting money and looting trucks by saying that they did not obey the federal directives but only followed the Sindh government’s orders.

The PTI leader said that the provincial government was spreading not only pessimism but also hatred through their advisers and ministers. “The Sindh government has now started arresting some traders and we condemn that act in strong words," he said.

Sindh govt, ministers 'nowhere to be seen'

Zaman had also said the provincial government did not devise and or send any document containing standard operating procedures (SOPs) to the federal government.

Earlier this month, the PTI leader had labelled Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah's planning of the lockdown as poor. The provincial government and its ministers "are nowhere to be seen", he had claimed. 

"Hospitals neither have kits to test coronavirus nor have doctors been given PPEs [personal protective equipment] and hospital staff is utterly unsafe,” he had added.

Zaman had asked the government of Sindh to stop inflicting "cruelty" on its people, asking Shah to formulate a strategy on coronavirus that the PTI would fully support.