Stuck in a Surprising World

By: Bashir Alam

The ongoing Corona pandemic has shuttered the normal life of human on planet completely, which was one upon a time begun to spread from Sea Food market of China in Yaghan city. It has done a lot of damage to not only economic giants (US, China, England, Japan), but also to every country of the world pervading exponentially into normal populace. According to medical experts, it will not show mercy unless we will able to get any breakthrough in the field of medicine.

Covid-19 cases are reported in all countries around the Globe, its tool is mounting in East and South Asian countries as it did in European countries. We have seen a surge in number of cases for the last couple of months in our country. In response to them, our govt has taken some certain measures to stop people from being exposed to it besides helping them in making their living.

It appears from government moves that rather than taking strict measures to curb the spread of corona virus it encouraged people towards running businesses while taking precautionary means. So far, Sind government has turned out to be more proactive and equivocal to protect people by adopting ways which totally departed against decisions taken by federal government. Initially it has put all cities and areas under complete lockdown for three weeks going against the decisions of federal government’s partial lockdown, though it could not implement it to an acceptable degree.

Even though, federal government has allowed some businesses to operate issuing harsh SOPs, but we are not sure whether Sind government would abide by the decisions taken collectively. Shah believes in complete lockdown of country to contain the spread of Covid-19. He looks desperate to fix the problem overnight.

In contrast, for PM Imran it’s not only the virus that alone can prove to be harmful, but the growing economic crisis can cease our financial existence too. He wants to come up with relatively a balanced approach. From the very first day of the pandemic, we have heard him of emphasising that “our world is different than others, our compulsions do not let us impose a lockdown like Europeans; we are a country where 25% of people living under poverty; and we can’t afford that the cases of Covid-19 would surge abruptly, as our medical industry is not strong enough to bear the brunt of so many cases. We are likely to enforce lockdown bearing in mind conditions of our people-smarter than others”.

He sounds rational to me as always than later. Feeling an urge to do something, government has launched Ehsas program in all provinces targeting the most deserving strata of our country, which is a welcome initiative. Following the mechanism of balanced approach to ease people under ongoing pandemic, a package for segment of middle business group is being discussed, probably would be announced in the next month. There might be a party or a person descanting abovementioned measures taken to give some relief to people in bewildering environment that has made living so difficult.

At the same time when it comes to count government moves to mitigate contagious affliction and halt its simmering disperse, we found it bemoaning over the performances of the then governments of Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Former President Zerdari. It is the matter of the time to utilize all existing resources, creating new ones, and accelerating services of health sector rather than becoming part of discussions which could take us nowhere.

Covid-19 has the capacity to give a tough time if the current situation would sustain for another couple of weeks. Number of cases may leap ahead of government projection of 50,000 by the mid of May. On the other hand, people ditched out all government campaigns and messages through which it appealed to them to take social distancing measures. They did what are told for just some days. Even after getting financial assistance from government introduced Ehsan Program there was no reason for people to come out of homes. It is seen across country that people no longer practice social distancing techniques, move everywhere without any good reason, participate in congregation, kill the time while hang on with people known and unknown to them as if Corona Virus has spared us for a good reason.

At the beginning, lack of coordination and cooperation between provincial and federal government fused confusion between decision makers and stakeholders, that is why the situation turned out perilous. Amid, Corona Command and Control Centre and National Coordination Committee are established, although these bodies should have been established at first. Since then, efforts for controlling spread of Corona are much improved. Nevertheless, we can now see some coherence and unity among leaders in their meetings.

There is another challenge to come for government. Un seen enemies can get enough room to attack us in the month of Ramazan, because we would see movement of people for getting errands. They may come out in the form of hordes to participate congregations when the Mosques are opened to offer prayers. Government should review its decision related to opening Mosques throughout the month of Ramazan. The situation will turn out to be more precarious if government will not make sure lesser public contacts by adopting strict decisions.

As a nation we should comply with the guidelines and orders issued for us by state, because the current pandemic is something new and strange for us which we have never seen and experienced before; it is going to take so many things from us; it is going to leave the lessons which will be learned by humans next to come for centuries. Yet nobody knows how long it will take to spare us. We are stuck in a surprising world rimmed by Covid-19. It is a long portrait war against which the whole world fights.