Sindh Assembly session to begin on Wednesday

MPAs to discuss Covid-19 outbreak, govt measures to deal with it

KARACHI: Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani has summoned an assembly session on Wednesday on the requisition of the opposition parties.

Over 50 MPAs belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Grand Democratic Alliance had submitted an application last week to requisition a session to discuss the coronavirus outbreak and the measures taken by the provincial government to deal with the pandemic and provide relief to the needy.

Sindh Assembly secretary GM Umer Farooq stated that proper social distancing measures would be implemented in the assembly session, with provision of sanitisers and thermal guns to check temperatures of the participants at the assembly entrance.

"No person will be allowed inside without a face mask," he said, adding that they were also making seating arrangements with gaps between the MPAs.

The session, which is scheduled to start at 11:30am, is likely to witness uproar, with opposition and treasury members coming head to head on the Covid-19 outbreak and the measures imposed to deal with it.

PTI leaders have been criticising Sindh's ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for what they term its failure to deal with the pandemic, while PPP ministers, who have been taking credit for taking the lead in tackling the virus, hold Prime Minister Imran Khan and the PTI-led federal government responsible for delaying the lockdown and spreading the virus in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2020.