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KARACHI: The Sindh government today (Saturday) revised its coronavirus lockdown restrictions it imposed a day ago, lifting the ban on pillion riding and allowing small transport to ply within the limits of Karachi.
The provincial government notified the following revisions in the coronavirus lockdown restrictions:
- Milk shops and bakeries exempted from timing restrictions, i.e: 6pm to 6am.
- Home delivery from restaurants as well as under E-commerce permitted.
- Industrial establishments/premises other than export-oriented industry and related with the manufacture/production of essential services may also be made functional.
- Fertilisers/pesticide shops and warehouses are exempted from timing restrictions.
- Small public transport (taxi, cab, rickshaw, Qingqi, etc) may ply within the city limits.
- Large public transport (buses, mini-buses and wagons) may ply within the city limits.
- The restriction of not carrying more than two persons in private vehicles is waived-off.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab said an ease in a few restrictions was aimed at encouraging people to visit vaccination centres in their respective areas.
“During this nine-day lockdown, we want people to come out of homes only for vaccination purposes and no other activity whatsoever,” the Sindh government spokesperson added.
Likewise, the chief minister’s aide said any shop violating the government order will also be sealed for 30 days, adding that the same was the case with restaurants allowing indoor dining in contravention of the orders.
Explaining the initiatives taken by the Sindh’s coronavirus task force, Wahab said the provincial administration had decided to use a “tactic” to persuade people to get themselves vaccinated.
“In this regard, it was decided that mobile SIM cards of unvaccinated people will be blocked, and you can see vaccination stats after four days of the announcement — there’s an exponential increase in it,” he added.
He asserted that at least 185,406 people got vaccinated against Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, adding that it was a result of narrative developed by the Sindh government in the last four to five days.
While responding to criticism by federal government on the new lockdown, Wahab said, “This isn’t an issue of the economy, but of health; the focus should be on convincing people, not on encouraging chaos”.
“No one from PPP issued statements over the announcement to enforce a lockdown in Punjab. Those in Karachi could not comprehend the situation in Punjab and likewise, those in Islamabad cannot comprehend Karachi’s ground realities,” he claimed.
The spokesperson added that the provincial government intends to work along with the federal government and elaborated that CM Murad spoke with NCOC chief Asad Umar and SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan and “nowhere during the conversation did they object to a lockdown”.
