PM Imran says poverty, unemployment due to COVID-19 higher in Sindh.

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said the unemployment and poverty caused by the coronavirus pandemic was disproportionately higher in Sindh than any other province according "to applications received by my PM Relief Fund".

Some "32% of all applicants are from Sindh whereas [population] of Sindh comprises around 22% of Pak's [population]," PM Imran, who is on a two-day tour to Sindh, wrote on Twitter following his visit to Larkana earlier today.

The premier said he came across a large number of people while distributing PM Relief Fund in Larkana and most of them were chaabrri-walas [hawkers], "whom police had stopped from working".

Consequently, he added, he had advised Sindh Governor Imran Ismail to take up the matter with the provincial chief minister, Murad Ali Shah, "as these poor people do not violate social distancing and their families survival depends on their daily income".

Earlier in the day, PM Imran Khan had said he regretted the elements politicking over the coronavirus pandemic and that the federal government "has not done any kind of discrimination with any province'.

Reiterating his stance that a strict lockdown is not implementable in the country owing to the associated economic fallout, the prime minister had said he was worried about the labour class, particularly the daily wagers.

The government's decision of a 'smart lockdown' proved fruitful as it not only 'slowed down the transmission of the deadly virus' due to the cordoning off of hotspots, it also assisted in saving the Pakistani economy from a major crisis.

During his tour to Larkana, the premier -...