File photo of Maryam Nawaz Sharif. PHOTO: EXPRESS

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seemingly in a bid to avoid annoying its political ally, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), with whom it plans to run an anti-government campaign after Eidul Fitr has kept silence over the worst outbreak of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Sindh that has affected over 700 people majority of whom are children.



The scale of HIV outbreak in Sindh, which has shocked the entire country, recently also got the attention of World Health Organization (WHO) that sent its team of experts to root out the cause of the disease and assist the provincial government in dealing with the crisis.



PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of party's founder Nawaz Sharif, has been active on social media lately, making her re-entry into the political arena after the suspension of her sentence.



She, however, seems to have turned a blind eye to the recent HIV outbreak in Ratodero and Larkana, which is the political nerve centre of Pakistan People Party (PPP).



The reports of disease started emerging on April 25, however, the news surfaced on the national media by April 30 when a doctor was arrested on charges of infecting patients with HIV. By then hundreds of children had been found infected with the virus. With every passing day, the number of affectees kept increasing.



A recent report of Sindh health ministry revealed that a total of 707 persons had been diagnosed with HIV in Ratodero after the screening of 24,227 people of which around 84 per cent or 580 were children, while the remaining were adults.



Keeping in view the gravity of the issue, one might expect national political leaders to question the party in power or at least express their concern over the situation. This, however, was not to be.



With PPP being in government in Sindh and in opposition in National Assembly and PML-N being its ally in the lower house of parliament, the Nawaz-led party found the state of affairs too complex to censure the Bilawal-led party at the spread of the deadly virus.



Maryam Nawaz, who normally is known for lashing out at PTI on social media, has kept her mysterious silence on the issue. Lately, most of her tweets have either been on the rekindling of friendship between the two arch-rivals PPP and PML-N, Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) issue or the arrest of Ameer Muqam’s son by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).



Similar is the case with PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif who has not contributed his two cents on the issue. Other leaders of PML-N have also kept mute over the haplessness of the people of Sindh.



A PML-N leader speaking on condition of anonymity said that provincial government cannot be held responsible for it as yet since the cause of the outbreak has not been ascertained.



He observed that raising voice on the issue might annoy PPP with whom the PML-N plans to run an anti-PTI campaign. He noted it was necessary to keep the opposition united in order to steer the country out of crisis that the PTI government had landed the country in.



PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that she condemns the negligence that led to the worst outbreak of HIV in Larkana and that whoever is responsible should be taken to task.



It is quite flabbergasting that on the one hand PML-N holds Prime Minister Imran Khan responsible for governance failure not only on federal level but also in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab the party has not even once been vocal about the sheer negligence of PPP in the interior Sindh that has ruined the lives of so many innocent people.



When asked about Maryam Nawaz’s silence on the issue, Marriyum Aurangzeb said, “She is very touchy about children but this HIV outbreak must have skipped her mind”.