KARACHI: Sindh Education and Literacy Minister Saeed Ghani has said that all schools in the province are being closed due to the Covid-19 situation, though exams will take place according to schedule.

He was speaking during a press conference at his camp office here in Clifton on Saturday.

“The schools may close but the examination schedules will remain unchanged,” he said.

“For the upcoming intermediate examinations, there will be around 115,000 students appearing in two shifts at more than 125 centres. We will try our best to hold the exams while observing the standard operating procedures,” he said.

“If we don’t hold these exams, the students’ entire year will be wasted as all the admissions to universities and foreign academic institutions depend on the results of these exams only,” he added.

He said that the Covid situation in Sindh was going from bad to worse with each passing day, but they were not sitting around doing nothing about it. “It is also true that we are working as fast as we can to control and contain the disease. But it is not true that the situation is so bad that there are no beds for Covid-19 patients available in our hospitals,” he said.

“We are taking precautions because we do not want the situation to get out of hand.”

He said that his party — the Pakistan Peoples Party — wanted early elections for the local bodies or municipalities but there were delays due to factions, etc. “And the federal government along with the MQM is responsible for it. The next local bodies elections and the cantonment elections before them will be swept by the PPP,” he claimed.

About the three-time successful candidate in the Clifton Cantonment Board, who has recently joined PPP, he said that he was the only one to be successful three times.

“And not just that, he has also been elected vice president there. Therefore he will be an asset for PPP.”

He said that the filing of papers for the cantonment elections would be done from July 26, while the elections would take place on September 12.

About the elections in Azad Kashmir, he said that if there was any rigging which “was seen in the election of 2018 there”, then it would badly hurt the Kashmir cause.

PPP Sindh’s general secretary Waqar Mehdi, Najmi Alam, Khalil Hoot, Karamullah Waqasi and others were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2021