PPP will go to any length to protect 18th amendment, constitution: Nasir Shah

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party is ready to go to any length on the issue of 18th amendment in the constitution whether it is to courts or on the streets.

This was said by the Information Minister Sindh Syed Nasir Ali Shah while addressing a press conference at the PPP media office Islamabad with Nazir Dhoki.

Syed Nasir Ali Shah said that the criticism and bad-mouthing was started during the session of national assembly by the foreign minister when he was asked first to deliver his speech on Covid-19 so its response had to come from opposition.

He accused Prime Minister and the federal government of spreading confusion about the lockdown amid Covid-19. When the government witnessed that the entire world and media was appreciating the measures by Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah under the guidance of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the prime minister and his cabinet as well as PTI members went berserk and started abusing the Sindh government and the PPP. The only crime of Sindh government and PPP was that they took appropriate measures to contain Covid-19 in time.

Syed Nasir Ali Shah said that if Pakistan had imposed a very strict lockdown for about two weeks as Sindh had suggested instead of giving confused signals to the people, then we would have been in a way better situation to deal with this pandemic.

He said that the difference between PPP and PTI is of awareness and ignorance. After Sindh every other province and federation imposed lockdown within days but PTI criticised only Sindh for lockdown. Similarly different areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad and Punjab were sealed but only Sindh was criticised for sealing a few UCs in Karachi.

Regarding allowing the so-called tiger force to function in Sindh Syed Nasir Shah said that Sindh will facilitate the tiger force despite objection on the name.

He said that if Imran Khan decides to open transport then he should come out and say so but he does not want to take responsibility. Similar was the case of opening businesses and shops but Imran Khan is continuously shying away from leading the country. He said that Sindh and Balochistan both had reservations on allowing transport to start.

Shah accused PTI and federal government that they start talking about NFC and 18th amendment just to hide their failures. We have to fully implement NFC and 18th amendment first before we talk about them. On the issue of 18th amendment, the PPP is ready to go to courts and the streets, he warned.

He said that when the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Pakistan, Sindh had a capacity of conducting only 80 tests per day which has now been increased to 6000 tests per day. Sindh has 12000 beds and the capacity will soon be increased to 20,000 beds. Sindh has 280 ventilators and 200 more are on the way. He also said that not a single ventilator has been provided by the federal government yet.