Sindh government’s unparalleled apathy
It seems the Sindh government has no parallel when it comes to deliberate disregard for clearly unavoidable mass deaths of little infant children. Just as when hundreds died of malnutrition in Thar last year, the Sindh government is unmoved once again as tens of infants have died in the province due to water borne diseases. There is also, as usual, acute food shortage. And there is widespread pneumonia, adding to the poor people’s plight. The government, typically, first did nothing. But, after long thought and wait, the chief minister doubled the budget for the hospital at Mithi.
At the time of the Thar deaths last year, when the provincial government naturally faced much condemnation, the Sindh government’s then information secretary, instead of accepting some manner of responsibility, said PPP actually deserved credit for its work for the poor. Now, too, the party seems irritated at the slightest questioning of its competence. Little surprise, in this backdrop, that the party has been on a sharp decline ever since it came to office in ‘08. Since the ’13 rout especially, it has struggled to find its feet, particularly in Punjab.
Sadly though, judging by its governance, the party does not seem much interested in regaining its lost political weight. Even now the party’s turnaround campaign – from the looks of it, at least – centres on the same old slogans about the Bhutto family’s losses and sacrifices for Pakistan; only this time a younger generation is seen raising the same slogans. On ground, however, there is a different reality. The life of the common man has not improved even in the party heartland in interior Sindh. In this day and age of advanced media, even the lowest social cadres are politically aware. Therefore not only the PPP’s poor governance, but its offensive behaviour in face of severe tragedies like needless infant deaths – sometimes by the hundreds – stands to cost it dearly at the polls once again.