Asad Umar terms Khurram Sher Zaman's statement on Sindh coronavirus figures as 'irresponsible'.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has termed the statement by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman about exaggerated coronavirus figures in Sindh as 'irresponsible'.

Talking to media, Umar said the policy decisions that were taken at the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), the government's nerve centre on coronavirus, were mostly based on the national death toll.

'Khurram Sher Zaman's statement about exaggerated figures in Sindh was irresponsible,' the minister said. 'We are paying a heavy price to contain the spread of the virus.'

Umar's remarks came in response to question about Zaman's claims accusing the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh for 'exaggerating coronavirus figures and death toll' earlier in the day.

"No other place in the world has been damaged by the coronavirus like Sindh due to the Sindh government," Zaman had said.

"Each day, these figures [coronavirus cases] are increased based on lies. When we go to hospitals, we find out there are no coronavirus cases there or whether anyone died there [from COVID-19].'

The PTI MPA had said that people's lives were being made difficult by the government in such times of crisis. He said that whenever anyone wanted to retrieve a body from the morgue, he/she was asked to provide a coronavirus certificate to authorities.

"If you go...