Who suffers, who cares

As Pakistan waits for the coronavirus disease to peak in the coming weeks, one can only speculate at what toll this will take on us in the long term. Both the stock market and the exchange rate have been shaky at best over the past week. Most well to do Pakistanis have started to empty out stores and supermarkets as they hoard up on essential commodities, waiting for the worse to happen.

One wonders who will be looking after those with limited incomes? How will the poor people cope with the rise in prices if this kind of panic buying continues. Does the government have any strategy in place?

It seems Islamabad is grappling. While the Sindh government led the way in introducing preventive measures to combat the spread of the disease some weeks back, the federal government, led by Dr Zafar Mirza finally woken up to the situation and announced measures that should have been in place much earlier.

For their own petty politics, the centre did not follow the measures taken by the Sindh government earlier. It also didn’t help the provincial administration much. It was only after the WHO officials praised the work of the province that Islamabad finally woke up.

We will pay a heavy price because of this neglect. Despite tall claims by Dr Mirza, those coming through Karachi Airport were not checked for symptoms. We are told that pilgrims coming from Iran were let into the country overland with minimal checking. This comes at a cost. It is no surprise that the first case detected was in Karachi and the victim had previously been in Iran. The people this patient may have infected could have been prevented.

The neglect continues. Even today while Islamabad and Lahore airports are being cleaned and scrubbed, no such exercise is being conducted in Karachi. The welcome initiative by the Sindh government to set up a checking service for incoming passengers at Karachi airport (after Islamabad failed miserably) is being ridiculed by ruling party supporters. How petty can this get?

Over the next few weeks we will know the real cost of the delay of implementing preventive measured by the centre. Can we blame this on short sightedness or a false sense of security?

Who can forget that only four months back, officials in Pakistan under this government were accused of covering up an outbreak of the most dangerous strain of polio and planning a covert vaccination programme to contain the disease?

The P2 strain had previously been eliminated from the country. However, the new cases were allegedly kept hidden from the government and from international donors, including the UK’s Department for International Development, under direct instruction from Babar Bin Atta, the Prime Minister’s focal representative on polio eradication, who was then forced to resign. Given this shameful incident, one would have expected the government to be more vigilant in the present-day scenario.

It is time to wake up and take the initiative. For example, government regulators should be vigilant about the activities in their sectors. Take for example the banking sector. The State Bank needs to do a comprehensive exercise on what measures have been put in place by banks to ensure their staff are kept safe from infection given the heavy load of public dealing.

Till now, barely any branch of any bank has facilities of hand sanitizers or staff taking precautions. The SBP should ask banks what provisions have been made for staff to work from home. As of now, barely a fraction of staffers is working from home.

Policies to protect employees should be put in place. Employees working from home should not be penalised in any sector. Regulators can introduce SOPs on how entities can operate to cope with the crisis and at the same time keep people safe. Risks should be avoided. Common sense should prevail.

The government also should come down hard on offenders. All places where people can converge in large numbers should be shut down for the time being. But we are not seeing that happen. Many malls remain open and patrons continue to visit them despite the obvious risks this poses. Commercial interests should be set aside in favour of the national interest. Can we do this for once?

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2020.

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