Murad meets industrialists, small traders.

KARACHI -- Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his meeting with leading industrialists and exporters here on Saturday at CM House said that he would discuss with his cabinet members and government machinery as to how and under which conditions and SOP, if necessary, export-based industry could be allowed to start operation.

'This was not an easy decision to impose lock down and stop the spinning wheel of the industry,' he said and added 'I had only one option either to save the economy at the cost of the people or to protect the people [from Coronavirus] at the cost of the economy and I opted for protecting my people at the cost of the economy.' He said that now we were facing the music and payment of salary for the current month had become difficult for him but he would manage.

He said the lock down could not be withdrawn immediately but it would be eased out after April 14.

Those who attended the meeting include Qasim Siraj teli, Mian Zahid , Mohamad Ali Taba, Zain Bashir, Khalid Majeed, Aman qasim, Khurram Ijaz, Javid Balwani, Zubair Chaya, Fawad Anwar and Bashir Rasheed. Deputy Chairman Senate Saleem Mandviwala, provincial ministers, Saeed Ghani, Mukesh Chawla, Imtiaz Shaikh, Nasir Shah, Murtaza Wahab, PSCM sajid jamal Abro, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahalwani, Secretary Labour Rasheed Solnagi also attended the meeting.

The Chief Minister said that so far, no Coronavirus case has been detected in slum area and katchi abadi. All the cases have been diagnosed among the people living in settled areas who either have travel history or have been locally transmitted, he said and added if any case emerged from slum area then it would spread like fire in forest.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the situation, he said, he imposed lock down and shut down all government offices, except of essential services and business except grocery shops and stores.

Mr. Shah said that the monthly salary bill of the government/local government employees was around Rs45 billion for which major funds were being provided by the federal government from the divisible pool. 'As a matter of fact, in the last few month of every financial year, the federal government funding increases but last month, in March, it has decreased drastically to Rs33 billion,' he said and went on saying the reason was being short of revenue collection at the end of the federal government. 'The federal government is also facing difficult situation,' he said.

The industrialist...