Incidentally, there was the 2nd jab date for my son so we have to go to the Arts Council vaccination centre for the vaccination. At Rashid Minhas Road and then Shara-e-Faisal, there was normal-day traffic and jams at one or two places as usual and we were asking each other where these people were going in cars and motorcycles as offices and markets are closed. At least at 2 places, the police had erected barricades, which caused jams and slowdown of the traffic at Shara-e-Faisal.
Outside Arts Council, we realized that there would be a rush inside as a large number of cars were parked outside the building. And that was the fact. An unusual number of people were standing in queues at the registration desks on the terrace.
Thank God, due to a better arrangement by the management of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, we went through the entire process and came out within one and a half hours.
But the situation at the largest vaccination centre of the city, Expo Centre was even worse. The media reported a large number of people had gathered there to get themselves vaccinated since early in the morning and due to the rush some people had broken the entry glass door, therefore, the vaccination process was stopped for many hours. There was also a report of a strike by the staff as they were not paid salaries for many months. I received a live report from Expo Centre as a brother of mine also went to get his first job and was standing outside the main hall in s long queue.
There was a report in the media that the government’s computer system to record the vaccination has also crashed due to heavy rush.
Even though the government had allowed the opening of grocery shops, police forcibly closed down major departmental stores in my area (Gulistan-e-Jauhar). I was buying some groceries at Al-Jadeed departmental store at main University Road, and the management suddenly started making announcements to vacate the store as soon as possible. The entry and exit gate shutters were pulled down in a panic as a Police officer at a petrol van told me that there was a violation of SPOs in the store so the Assistant Commissioner ordered to close it down. Two other major stores in the area – Bin Hashim and Bin Safeer were also closed down in the afternoon (much before 6 pm).
Sindh government on Friday (July 30) announced a “partial lockdown” in the entire province effective from July 31 till August 9 as COVID-19 cases have shot up to around 30% in a single day in Karachi city alone. Export-related manufacturing industries, medical stores, bakeries and grocery shops were allowed to open in specified times. Later, the provincial government amended the notification twice and announced further relaxed conditions like it allowed inter-provincial transport movement and plying of rickshaws and other passenger transport within the city limits by following standard operating procedures (SOPs). It also lifted a ban on pillion riding on motorcycles.
Local businessmen’s bodies, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Anjuman-e-Tajran rejected the closure of the business. Even the federal government and its ruling party Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaf severely criticised the Sindh government for closing down the businesses to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Sindh, especially in Karachi.
Sindh government spokesman Murtaza Wahab and later PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari censured the federal government for its unrealistic criticism of the Sindh government on COVID-19 lockdown.
Federal government ministers Asad Umer, Fawad Chaudhry and Shaikh Rasheed opposed the lockdown and Asad Umer said the lockdown in India has pushed the economy of India on a backtrack and even it went down by 7% and still has not recovered. So the only solution is a smart lockdown. They said instead the provincial government had to focus on the implementation of SOPs. On the other hand, the Sindh government said it had no option but to impose restrictions to control the spread of the pandemic variant Delta. Murtaza Wahab emphasized the need for continuous engagement in dialogue with the federal government
