Daily Times

The government is now realising that it was not the best idea to reopen all of the economy all at once. For now we have the rather discomforting thought of losing some of our advantage over the rest of the world as coronavirus cases, as well as deaths caused by it, are once again on the rise and smart lockdowns have already had to be reintroduced in parts of Karachi and Islamabad. And the government itself has been forced to admit that restaurants, marriage halls, and markets are to blame for the spike in numbers once again. The prime minister was cautioned, not very long ago, against opening up all sectors so soon. That was when he was insisting that the tourism sector be opened as soon as possible and a lot of onlookers, even inside the government, wondered what good rushing head first into the reopening would do.

The situation in Karachi is of particular concern. According to reports, most hospitals are once again forced to function at full capacity and people are beginning to wonder how they will have access to proper treatment if things continue to get worse. From the government’s point of view, nothing can be worse than a situation that requires yet another shutdown because that would hurt the economy to no end. Both fiscal and monetary authorities managed to keep the whole house from falling on itself during and after the last lockdown, but the economy simply does not have any excess capacity anymore and we’re also struggling to get loans to meet our expenses at present especially since the IMF program is so badly stalled.

While considering partial lockdowns, the government must start with sectors that are not central to the working of the system, like marriage halls and the tourism sector. Sure, it is just as important to protect jobs and livelihoods in these sectors as in others, but it defeats the whole points if these are at the forefront of spreading a deadly infection throughout the rest of society as well. Pakistan must arrest this trend of rising number of cases at once. Any complacency at this point will not only undo all of the good work that was done, but also cause untold hardships since the economy is in no shape to weather yet another storm. *