I don’t know what is on papers; but in reality, there is no lockdown and social distancing in Karachi. Lockdown and social distancing has been rejected by citizens of Karachi. Karachi’s citizens are tired of this so-called, inactive, and incomprehensible lockdown of the Sindh government. It is a fact that nobody is ready to take responsibility for this city and neither is ruling of this huge metropolitan and populated city. Neither central or provincial government nor police, rangers, or army. All of the stakeholders are just trying to complete the totals. It is a piece of bad luck for this city that Karachi city takes care of the whole country, but nobody cares about it. Even the Sindh government works for only some areas of this city. Our the most important Islamic month Ramadan-ul-Mubarak is standing on our doorstep, but we are not ready for welcoming it, even nobody is ready. It is the biggest setback for Karachi’s citizens. In this city, the government, police, rangers, and government officers are not local people therefore they cannot understand the basic problems neither they have interested to solve the problems. Nobody can lockdown this city completely, because it is not a planted city. Its uncountable population is split in a huge area. Govt cannot distribute food and donation to the whole people of the city. Even nobody knows the real population.
If the children of any house are hungry, parents will not stop at home for fear of Coronavirus. Because their food and relief will not reach their home. For that, they have to get out of the house.
The Sindh government is distributing food and donation so secretly that those who share their own aid do not even know how much help they are giving, how will the recipient know? Even the court had to ask the Sindh government who and how much the aid was given. The central government is giving Rs. 12,000 per family and it is an excellent package for poor families, but it is distributing those persons who are in the list of Benazir Income Support Program and opened only 6 centers in the whole Karachi city for the distribution of this aid. It is not more enough for this populated city. It confirms that the only lockdown is not the solution to this problem. In a lockdown, people face some problems, and it is the responsibility of a government that solves these problems. But in Karachi, government or other government organizations do not seem interested to take these responsibilities. Corona cases are increasing day by day in Pakistan speedily, especially in Karachi. Everyone is telling that the public is should strictly follow lockdown. But Karachi cities are not following the government’s instructions because the government is not doing anything except lockdown. How can a poor person arrange food and other things for his family at the stay at home, if he does not go out? So he is doing this. It is incredible but true that there is no public ambulance service available for a city with a population of 30 million. You can understand the seriousness of the government in health facilities under this information. Private welfare organizations and trusts are trying to do the best not only for Karachi but also for the whole country, but it is not enough. Nowadays Karachi is looking like an occupied area where law enforcement agencies are busy limiting people to their homes using custom law. Somewhere people are being tortured, somewhere bike tires are being torn, somewhere people are being humiliated, and somewhere everything is being ignored. But this lockdown doesn’t look successful. The government has no interest in public issues. Government performance is only limited to the closing of the city by lockdown or being given statements on television.
It is the core responsibility of the Sindh government that it should take serious initiatives for the welfare of citizens of Karachi, otherwise Sindh government will be responsible for all damages and losses.
