Plane crash blame game intensifies as PTI accuses PPP govt of poor response.

Byline: Imran Ayub

KARACHI -- The blame game between the provincial and federal governments that started over the lockdown strategy to contain the spread of coronavirus has now extended to the affairs of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) after the recent plane crash as key provincial leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf blamed the PPP-led Sindh government for poor post-disaster mismanagement and held the PPP responsible for the collapse of the national carrier.

Earlier on Tuesday, Sindh ministers Nasir Shah and Saeed Ghani held a press conference and came down hard on the PTI government as well as PIA chief executive officer against the backdrop of May 22 plane crash.

On Wednesday, Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi and PTI's parliamentary party leader came up with a tit-for-tat press conference on the campus of a private university, questioning the performance of the PPP government in Sindh amid the coronavirus pandemic and the relief and rescue operation following the plane crash.

'Ministers came only for photo sessions'

'When the plane crashed there was not a single ambulance of the provincial government and not a single official to deal with the incident,' said Mr Naqvi. 'Has there even [been] a single government hospital equipped with a cold-storage facility to place at least 200 bodies at one time? Two major airplane crashes were witnessed in the PPP governments. The former rulers destroyed the PIA by recruiting more than 4,500 surplus staff and now they blame the federal government for every crisis.'

He said the PIA was suffering Rs35 billion annual losses at a time when the PPP was ruling in the centre and in Sindh. In the government of PML-N the accumulated estimated loss of the PIA was Rs500bn, he said.

Opposition leader Naqvi holds PPP responsible for PIA collapse as it hired over 4,500 surplus staff

He also criticised Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani for commenting on every issue 'pretending himself to be an expert' of all fields.

Haleem Adil Sheikh said that there were no disaster management department of the Sindh government at the site of the crash.

He claimed the PTI...