Kaira criticises govt for ending lockdown

Pakistan People’s Party Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira on Tuesday said coronavirus is spreading fast in Pakistan while the government ended lockdown.

He was addressing a press conference after the PPP Faisalabad Division video-link meeting in the PPP Punjab Secretariat flanked by general secretary Chaudhary Manzoor Ahmed, Chaudhary Aslam Gill, Usman Saleem Malik and other leaders.

The ex-information minister said it is feared that by the end of this month, the number of Corona patients will cross one lakh. In the present regime, poverty has already increased, people have become unemployed.

He added that Pakistan is ranked 108th to 112th in the world in terms of democracy. Pakistan is nowhere in the Freedom of the press index list, this is the performance of the current selected Prime Minister Imran Khan, he lamented.

Kaira said that people were protesting in Lahore Quarantine Center and people were being asked to pay for living in the quarantine center.  He said that after the 18th amendment, the country has moved towards betterment, the federation has survived because of the 18th amendment and the NFC award, these developments have weakened the separatist and nationalist movements.

He added it was the responsibility of the federal government to establish the national consensus, and not the opposition’s job, in which it failed miserably.  He said that they have shattered the national unity. The government should give an account of Rs. 12 billion, how much money was given to the workers and farmers, he questioned. At the onset of the corona virus, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has offered full cooperation to the government to create a national consensus, but the federal government did not respond positively, he said.

To a question, PPP leader says when the government fails, in house change and fresh elections are the democratic ways to change the government. The locust is spreading very fast when we were screaming then it was not noticed; now it has spread in Balochistan and Punjab too. Now the food security risk has arisen from the locust heart, he warned.

Kaira said that the Punjab government which is already suffering from financial difficulties has not been able to meet its target in collecting taxes, and its development, health, education and welfare budgets have been cut. He added in the Corona crisis, the federal government did not give a single rupee to Sindh, even it did not extend help to Punjab against Corona epidemic, he added.

He said that instead of revising the NFC, the government should reduce the share of the federal government. The present share that is still coming is being given by the provinces. He reminded that the budget deficit is earlier than Corona crises. He said, the government has failed to achieve the revenue target. Rather than doing any positive work, it is constantly targeting Sindh, its ministers are threatening Governor Raj.

Earlier, addressing the meeting of PPP Faisalabad division, Kaira said that the attitude of the government on all issues including lockdown, powers and resources of the provinces has been very inappropriate; Imran Khan's fascist government took the path of confrontation.

The opposition has given its opinion to the government at every opportunity, and the PPP has always been in the lead. Chairman Bilawal's views to tackle the crisis are the same as that of the World Health Organization and doctors, he stated.