More people would die of hunger than coronavirus if the government failed to announce a huge support package to keep the wheels of industry moving; otherwise, the supply chain would seriously suffer and the country would witness food riots.
This was said by Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman AltafShakoor here Tuesday.
He said that the Pakistani industrialists are praiseworthy as despite lack of any support from the government side they are trying hard that their workers are not rendered jobless and the wheels of industry keep moving. He said however without a government support no industrialist can continue paying wages to workers on sustainable basis, when their production and selling is affected.
Shakoor warned if the industry suffers it would bring a Tsunami of unemployment and more people would die of hunger that coronavirus infection. He said crime and depression levels are on the rise in whole Pakistan and soon food riots would emerge if the government failed to maintain the already threatened supply chain.
The PDP chief said many big industries have monthly salary bills of several millions and due to liquidity crunch they cannot pay these salaries to their workers. He said if the lockdown continued it would result in a huge economic devastation of Pakistan.
He warned that our economy is not as strong as the economies of western countries. He said the Pakistani people do not have gotten enough social security cover to sustain longer periods of lockdown and business inactivity.
