Dr Muhammad Mumtaz
THE Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has emerged as a devastating challenge for the world in the 21st Century. No country might have imagined the deadly impact and spread of COVID-19 for such a massive scale. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan is also facing the menace of COVID-19. A country of 220 million inhabitants and with dangling economy will have to confront this challenge. As of today, (Monday) COVID-19 cases in Pakistan have already reached over 13,328 (these figures are constantly changing) and the number may sharply rise to 100,000 or even beyond in the upcoming weeks as indicated by Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, a prominent scientist in Pakistan. The first case of COVID-19 in Pakistan was reported on 26 February 2020 and it rang the alarm bells for Pakistani government. Pakistan was quite familiar with the gravity of the pandemic as its neighbouring friendly country China was engaged in placing its utmost efforts to manage the virus. Moreover, Pakistan’s southern neighbour Iran has emerged as a major hotspot for COVID-19.
The government of Pakistan has so far taken various initiatives: the closure of borders, partial lockdown, mobilization of the armed forces across the country, involvement of religious scholars, establishment of centralized controlling and monitoring mechanism and announcement of financial stimulus package. Immediate response opted by Pakistan was to temporarily seal its borders with Iran and Afghanistan and stopped air links with Iran and China, where the Coronavirus outbreak originated. Later, Pakistan halted its all international flights until today. The primary objective of the government’s efforts is to reduce the pace of COVID-19 spread so that large numbers of people do not become infected at the same time. Pakistan lacks a strong healthcare system in order to fight the pandemic at a large scale. Notably, Prime Minister of Pakistan stated in his first address to the nation on COVID-19 that ‘We may not be able to completely stop the spread of virus but we must have to limit its spreading pace’.
The provincial governments introduced the lockdown in their respective provinces. On the heels of 18th constitutional amendment provincial governments are responsible to deal with such crises. The Sindh government taking the lead by closing all educational institutions, banning large gatherings at public places, and suspending economic activities so as to assess the actual situation and devise further practical steps. The other province also followed the same strategy and introduced lockdown in their respective provinces. For an effective lockdown and to maintain the law and order situation across the country, Pakistan Army is deployed. The provincial government using the constitutional power can ask army’s intervention to “act in aid of civil power”. All the provincial governments sought for the Army help in this critical situation. The deployment of Army is an appreciable step as the institution has prior experiences of coping crises situations.
Another important initiative taken by the government is to involve the religious segment of the society. In a Muslim majority country, religious clergy has an important role to guide the masses. Chairman Qibla Ayaz of the Council of Islamic ideology which is a constitutional body issued a statement that masses should pray at home instead of going to mosques. Likewise messages of other Ulema on national television are regularly being broadcast to educate the public about the pandemic, urge people to stay home, and to maintain social distancing.
A centralized command and control centre for COVID-19 have established at national levelling order to disseminate authentic information and keep updated to public on the pandemic. This centre is responsible for regular sharing of information, latest updates, figures, and directions on the disease. By continuously providing information, the government aims to make it clear what measures are being taken, and why. The centre also ensures effective coordination among the federal and provincial governments on control the virus.
The federal government discourages country-wide lockdown. However, it maintains rather to take a balanced approach where to contain the pandemic and to minimize the economic losses. This constant refusal to impose a national lockdown by the federal government was criticized by both local and international media. However, Imran khan-Prime Minister has time and again argued in the favour of his decision by stating that he fears the potential economic fallout of a lockdown and national quarantine could result in the poor “dying from hunger”. The federal government approach seems justified because it is not possible to feed 220million people for an incalculable period of time with this fragile and debt-ridden economy. The federal government has presented crisis packages to mitigate the financial impact of the pandemic.
The federal government has announced a multi-trillion-rupee relief package for poor segment of the society despite the weak economic situation of the country. The government allocated 200 billion rupees for the labour class in addition to calling on the private sector not to lay off labourers. Under the package, some 10 million people, categorized under low-income groups, will get a lump sum of amount 1200 rupees, initially for a period of four months. This measures if successfully implemented will lessen the pain of a lockdown which seems to be the only way to stop the spread of the disease. Apart from government initiatives, civil society organizations and philanthropic organizations are also activated throughout the country to help the needy people. The report of Stanford Social Innovation Review stated that Pakistan contributes more than 1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to charity, placing it among “far wealthier countries like the United Kingdom (1.3%) and Canada (1.2%) and around twice what India gives relative to GDP.” In this crises, Pakistanis are bonding together to assist the less fortunate in a unique and inspiring way. This is another promising measure to deal with the critical situation.
This is an ongoing fight and the government will have to take a range of further measures to limit the spread of the virus and to mitigate and balance the economic impact of it. Though the government of Pakistan is monitoring developments in COVID-19 pandemic closely and taking the decisions that are needed, when they are needed, to limit the spread and countering the negative economic implications on society, it is important to implement the right measure at the right time, to achieve the best possible impact. Along with the government, it is people’s responsibility to adopt all safety measures advised by WHO and public health offices. Together we can defeat the pandemic and restore economic activities.
—The writer is working as Assistant Professor and Coordinator for Graduate Programme in Public Administration and Governance at The University of Haripur.
