No time for politics

Our leaders must keep aside their political and ideological differences


Editorial March 21, 2020
Only a few countries in the world are now left uninfected with the novel coronavirus. With virtually the whole world suffering, this is an unusual crisis in the history of the globe. And unusual crisis require unusual responses. Sadly though, our political class, in general, continues to behave routinely. As usual, the government and the opposition don’t seem ready to shake hands with each other — well, not as a precaution to avoid contagion — even for this big a national cause. The two sides are still hesitant on giving up on their political rivalry and working in concert towards fighting the novel challenge. If a crisis as big as Covid-19 — one that has wreaked havoc with almost every aspect of life even in the most advanced countries of the world and has now crossed into our borders with its full fatal potential — has failed to provide a common ground for the two to act, then what will! If they cannot act in unison now, they never will.

A few sensible voices have, however, emerged. In a gesture of companionship, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Thursday announced a ‘no criticism policy’ regarding Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government over their handling of the situation. With his tone free from bickering and loaded down with concern, the young leader called upon the political class not to “waste our energies over criticism, blame game and political point-scoring” and “play our role in this fight”. Khawaja Saad Rafiq, speaking upon his release from jail on Thursday, hit a similar note. The PML-N leader offered his party’s full cooperation to the government over the fight against coronavirus though, the conciliation offer should have rather come from the Sharifs.

This is indeed time for a concerted response. Our leaders must keep aside their political and ideological differences — at least for now — and play their role in dealing with the unprecedented challenge. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21st, 2020.

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