Sindh govt imposes ‘smart lockdown’ in province’s select areas
KARACHI: As the federal government identified some 20 potential Covid-19 hotspots where restrictive measures are needed to contain the virus in line with the prime minister’s smart lockdown policy, the local administration moved into action on Tuesday to place restrictions in several areas of different districts and sought a nod from the Sindh government for imposing the lockdown in a number of other neighbourhoods, including some in Karachi’s West district and towns of Hyderabad.
Officials said that the move was aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus in line with the uniform policy across the country devised by the National Coordination and Operation Centre (NCOC).
“In areas of Jamshoro a 14-day lockdown has been imposed on Tuesday,” said an official citing orders from the deputy commissioner office. “The areas of lockdown included Khosa Mohalla, Memon Mohalla of Bubak town and Lorhai Street near Wadero Bahar Memon of Taluka Sehwan. According to the DC’s order, no person can exit these localities, except [for] supplying of essential commodities. The restriction would remain in place for the next 14 days.”
The same policy was adopted by Sukkur administration. However, the deputy commissioner selected different areas for different time period of lockdown. In some areas maximum eight-day lockdown has been imposed and in some parts of the city the restrictions would be lifted after three days.
“Local Board near Girls Degree College, Soomra Mohalla Pano Akil, Sindhi Society in New Sukkur and Bhelar Mohalla Pano Akil will observe an eight-day lockdown effective from Tuesday,” said an official. “The restrictions in Gajwani Mohalla Rohri would be eased after seven days while surrounding areas of Haidri Masjid in five days and Shah Khalid Colony in New Sukkur would be freed from the lockdown after three days.”
The government had announced that 20 cities had been identified as potential Covid-19 hotspots/clusters where restrictive measures were needed to contain the virus in line with the prime minister’s smart lockdown policy.
Of the 20 cities, six are in Sindh (Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Ghotki, Larkana and Khairpur).
Despite serious differences of approach and thoughts over policy of lockdown between federal and provincial governments, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) administration in Sindh insisted to follow the uniform policy instead of imposing a complete lockdown in the cities. Under the same strategy, district administrations in different parts of the province have started identifying the hotspots.
Lockdown likely in district West
In Karachi, the city commissioner was actively involved with his team and officials of the health department identifying areas facing serious challenge of spread of Covid-19.
A complete list is expected to be completed till late in the night and it would lead to implementation of the smart lockdown strategy.
“We are still in the process of identifying the areas where we are seeing major number of cases. Once this process is done, we would then formalise the strategy that how we need to go with the restriction and devise the execution plan,” Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani told Dawn.
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