PPP leadership fires back after criticism from PTI's Shahbaz Gill

KARACHI/LAHORE: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill has been on a criticism spree against the government of Sindh since late last night and the PPP leadership has hit back harder at him throughout Sunday.

Gill started throwing jibes at the Sindh government yesterday when he visited Jacobabad, commenting on the state of affairs of healthcare there. He reportedly only went to the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital and chose not to check out the Jacobabad Institute of Management Sciences (JIMS).

In a comment, he said he was not invited to JIMS and that Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah was "misrepresenting" facts.

"I wouldn't have gone even if I was invited to [visit] the JIMS," he said. The facility was built as a small specialised hospital with aid from the United States in 2013, but neither has an emergency or intensive care unit (ICU), nor is it a hospital you made", he claimed, referring to the PPP.

Jacobabad, he stressed, only had one major medical facility called the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, which he went to and where he met a doctor in its emergency unit. Another was at home but returned upon hearing of his arrival, he added.

"There is only one hospital about which there have been reports, that its ambulances have broken down due to lack of use," Gill mentioned, adding that he had videos as proof. He challenged Shah to join him for a debate on a live TV programme.

"The videos show patients under treatment in the general and gynecology wards. The hospital's ER was open where one little girl patient was brought in front of me.

"Don't engage in misrepresentation; there's only one civil hospital in Jacobabad which is the DHQ," Gill continued.

Humans 'being treated like animals here'

Gill also struck down PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's comment on how hospitals in Sindh were the country's best. "Bilawal sahab, the largest hospital in the Jacobabad district looks like a ruin.

"No country will have such a hospital even for animals like the one built here for humans. It's impossible to treat any common ailment here, let alone the coronavirus," Gill had stated, claiming that people were bringing patients in donkey carts and that piles of garbage were abound in the area.

He claimed that the hospitals in Balochistan were a great degree better than those in Sindh.

The premier's aide said the PPP government's actions are "limited to holding press conferences and issuing statements".

"The nation will make a comparison and the nation will make a decision," he had said, adding that the federal government was providing financial assistance, ventilators, and essential supplies throughout Pakistan.

"The federal government provided Rs40 billion to the deserving people in Sindh and reached 2.5 million families," Gill said.

In a subsequent post on Twitter, in response to Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari reminding the government they had yet to respond to Bilawal's challenge, the premier's aide even remarked that "the Sindh family does not know Urdu".

Bilawal had, a day earlier, challenged the government to point out even one hospital which matches the standards of healthcare provided by National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi.

Gill should avoid making 'deceitful' remarks: Shah

Responding to Gill's criticism of the healthcare in Sindh, Sindh information minister Nasir Hussain Shah reminded him that Bilawal's challenge was related to the NICVD.

"Shahbaz Gill had gone to a relatively inactive hospital. Doctors there told him to go to the JIMS which had patients but he did not go," the information minister said.

"There is also an NICVD unit at Jacobabad's main hospital. Shahbaz Gill did not go there despite the invitation. He turned down the administration's invitation to visit Jacobabad's main hospital," he added.

"The hospital in Jacobabad that Shahbaz Gill visited also has a coronavirus ward. If Shahbaz Gill had gone to Jacobabad's main JIMS hospital, he would have been able to depict a truer picture," he said.

Shah said most of the patients of Jacobabad's civil hospital had been shifted to the 133-bed JIMS, which he said was a state-of-the-art facility. "Shahbaz Gill should avoid making deceiving comments when he comes to Sindh," he added.

Gill 'of no importance'

PPP lawmaker Abdul Qadir Patel also responded to Gill over his comments, saying: "Even [Prime Minister] Imran Khan is incapable of understanding Bilawal Bhutto's words [and] Shahbaz Gill is of no importance."

"Shahbaz Gill does not understand what NICVD means. Had he seen the NICVD in Sukkur, he would have been ashamed," he said.

The MNA also lambasted the premier over the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT), saying the latter had "made it a source of income".

"Imran Khan should hand it [SKMT] over to national custody," Patel said.

'Who does Shahbaz Gill think he is?'

Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh also defended the PPP saying that the former spokesperson of the Punjab chief minister had visited a hospital that had been shut down for the past five years.

"The JIMS was set up five years ago and the DHQ hospital has been shut down ever since. The JIMS is well-equipped with all the required facilities, has a modern cardiology hospital in it, and most of the DHQ's staff has been transferred," said Shaikh.

"PTI's local leader in Jacobabad is well aware of the whole situation," he said, adding that Gill's method of gaining so-called "fame" was uncalled for.

The energy minister further noted that had the premier's aide visited the JIMS, he would have known the ground realities.

The ruling PTI's leaders "should not mislead the nation with videos of closed hospitals and schools", he said.

"No facilities are available to patients in Punjab. Shahbaz Gill is engaging in political drama by going to Jacobabad," he had said, adding that everyone knew Gill was "a guest" in the PTI government.

"Who does Shahbaz Gill think he is to challenge Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto? He is trying unsuccessfully to increase his political stature," Shaikh had said.

PM Imran's 'vision'

Following his visit to the Jacobabad hospital Saturday night, in a press conference in Quetta, Gill said PM Imran had fought for justice for the past 24 years and that his "vision to combat the coronavirus became popular in the whole world".

"The prime minister did a good job under difficult circumstances and pressure. The government of Sindh had adopted a complete lockdown but it did not become popular," the premier's aide said.

"The country's strict lockdown policy on coronavirus has not been successful," he had added. "What the leader sees is not visible to the common man!"