THE decision of the government to remove most of the remaining Covid-19 related restrictions is understandable as the country is witnessing a sharp decline in new infections and the number of deaths due to Coronavirus. As per commitments made by Prime Minister Imran Khan before Eid-ul-Azha, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on Covid-19 on Thursday decided to lift restrictions on tourism sector from Aug 8 and on restaurants and transport sector from Aug 10 and gave a timetable for opening some other sectors, including educational institutions and marriage halls. The meeting, also attended by representatives of the provinces, decided to lift curbs on railways, airlines and metro buses but the condition of mandatory gap between passengers would remain in place till September.
Together with other measures already announced by the provincial governments, the latest decisions would help restore normalcy in daily life, address grievances of different sectors of the economy and mitigate sufferings and woes of the people. The situation created by Covid-19 was, indeed, extraordinary and safety and precautionary measures enforced by the Government multiplied problems of the people who were already facing enormous pressure due to record price-hike, shortage of essential commodities, hoarding, smuggling and cartelized behaviour of some segments of industries and trade. As compared to many other countries that are still experiencing an increase in new cases, Pakistan is lucky that it overcame the challenge despite not so strict implementation of the restrictions and adoption of the SOPs. The policy of smart lockdowns has apparently worked and produced the desired results tackling the situation without extreme harm to the economy and the livelihood. Normalcy would return to the country in a few days as restaurants and cafes, outdoor and indoor, will be allowed to open from 10th August and standard operating procedures (SOPs) will be finalized in the next two to three days. Moreover, public parks, theatres, cinemas, amusement parks, arcades, expo centres and beauty parlours will also be allowed to open from Monday. However, there seems to be clear bias against two sectors – education and marriage halls as restrictions on them would continue till September 15 and a decision would be taken subject to a review of the ground situation a week before that deadline. The remarks of Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar that health and education ministers had been told to see how other countries had dealt with the issue of opening of schools is reflection of confusion that still persists among policy and decision-makers about the most important field of the national life. In many countries of the world, educational institutions have been opened subject to implementation of safety measures for children and the experiment has been successful. Implementation of similar procedures in Pakistan by public and private educational institutions would take some time and additional expenses and, therefore, the authorities will have to make quick decisions to save educational careers of millions of students. Again, there is hardly any justification for maintaining restrictions on marriage halls and marquees when you are allowing opening of cinemas and theatre where almost equal number of people gather. Similarly, permission has also been given for opening of shrines and religious gatherings like Urs can also be organized subject to approval by the provincial government concerned. In this backdrop, there is absolutely no justification to delay opening of marriage halls as the ban is badly affecting the once rapidly flourishing business besides creating problems for people. Punjab Government had already recommended to the Centre to move towards reopening of the sector and the policy in this regard needs to be reviewed on a priority basis. The Government is apparently waiting for Ashura processions and gatherings to conclude before allowing full return to normalcy but discrimination against two/three sectors is unfortunate.
