The government has always given priority to the interest of the entire nation while tackling the coronavirus pandemic in Pakistan, says Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“We have developed a system where provincial ministers and doctors are in contact with each other every day,” he said in a media briefing in Karachi on Wednesday.

At all the National Command and Operation Committee meetings, all the decisions are taken after consensus from the provinces. “Yet there are leaders who come out of the Meeting and then resort to playing politics,” the premier said.

“All the provinces were always taken into consensus where Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah agreed to the decisions, but outside the meeting Bilawal says completely opposite things,” PM Khan said.

He expressed that the only thing he ever opposed to was the strict lockdown Sindh had imposed earlier in March and April. “I have always said that our fight is with both Coronavirus and hunger.

“More than 40% of Karachi is in slums. So we tried to slowly open the lockdown and convert it into a smart lockdown,” he said, adding that in all these decisions, the province was kept in the loop.

The premier said that all the medical aid and equipment distributed by the National Disaster Management Authority was equally distributed among the provinces.

He said that the Pakistan has skillfully tackled the coronavirus situation and saved the economy as compared to other countries. “The coronavirus crisis is international and thankfully God has saved us from it.”

“The peak in the cases here was imminent because we can’t afford a lockdown,” the prime minister said, adding that countries such as India and USA were also lifting restrictions as people were dying of hunger there.

“Countries such as Germany and Sweden where the virus has been controlled, there the people followed SOPs,” he said, emphasising that strict action will now be taken against those violating the government’s guidelines.

“We know where the hotspots are and will enforce a smart lockdown in those areas.”

The premier added that a new local government system will soon be introduced in Karachi where the residents will be able to elect their own mayor.