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The danger of not extending the lockdown

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By Omar R Quraishi The anti-lockdown lobby is led by the Prime Minister himself – he has repeatedly said that he is against a nationwide lockdown because that would, according to him, kill more people from poverty than the coronavirus itself. In fact, in a special short address in English addressed to the rest of the world, the PM said that like other countries, Pakistan was trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus and manage the economic impact of the disease, but its biggest challenge was to prevent people dying from hunger in Pakistan.  Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan -- File photo At the same time, as recently as April 8, the PM has said: It is a misconception that this pandemic is sprea­ding slowly in the country as the number of our deaths has been low so far and it will not spread rapidly; it will become worse in the days to come. The question is that does he really expect people, who routinely flout lockdown orders and consider it to be ...
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Lockdowns may not be enough in themselves: some policy prescriptions for governments in Pakistan By Lalarukh Ejaz Pakistan has over 1,100 coronavirus cases as of the writing of this piece. And the numbers could be 5-10 times higher than that because not enough people are being tested. However, given Pakistan's scant resources spent on health, the future could be frightening, not least because there doesn't seem to be much testing going on. Because of scarce resources like test kits, provincial governments in Pakistan have focussed for the timebeing on testing those who had a specific travel history (China, Pakistan, Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Italy, UK, etc). The provincial governments and nor the federal government has been really forthcoming on the matter of testing - and it would be fair to assume that even now when cases have crossed 1,100, testing is being done for those with a travel history, their contacts, or those who have been in contact with someone who tested po...
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6 ways to tell that it's a bad time to be a journalist in Pakistan

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By Omar R Quraishi 1. Self censorship To some extent this has always been there in Pakistan. As a reporter or an editor you are trained on the job to not talk or write about certain things and you know it's best (for you) if you tend to gloss over certain issues or altogether ignore them.  Examples are the state's policies with regards to India, America and Afghanistan. Of course, you will find some debate and discussion on this in the English print media which has a limited audience but you won't any discussion on it on the TV talk shows.  In the case of CPEC, the only time there was any debate about its potential costs to Pakistan's economy was when Adviser to the PM on Commerce and Industry Abdur Razzak Dawood said in an interview to the Financial Times (a UK paper) that the new government intended a review of CPEC and its addition to the country's debt burden.  However, most journalists and reporters will tend to take the easy path ...
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6 things you need to know about the new PTI govt

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By Omar R Quraishi 1.         Of the 102 PM House vehicles put up for auction, 61 were sold. What happens to those not sold? The government estimated that around Rs 2 billion would be raised by the sale of the vehicles, which included 4 bullet-proof limousines whose combined value was estimated at Rs 1 billion. Also, how much was spent on the ads placed in the newspapers and on the video clips made to share on social media about the auction? It has been reported that the auction fetched in the region of Rs 200 million, a mere one-tenth of the amount that the PTI government hoped to collect. The PTI did this – which now seems more of a PR spectacle than anything else – because it wanted to show its supporters that it believed in austerity and belt-tightening. However, the reality is to the contrary because senior government leaders continue to have lots of protocol and roads continue to be blocked for their convoys to pass, just like in Pu...
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Government by U-turn

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By Omar R Quraishi Imran Khan's residence in Bani Gala Here is a list of U-turns performed by the PTI government in its first 5 weeks in office 1. The PM said he wouldn't live in the Prime Minister House - he would instead live in the residence of the Military Secretary to the PM, which incidentally is also within the boundaries of Prime Minister House. However, he doesn't stay there either - commuting between the Prime Minister Office and his own Bani Gala residence every day, usually by helicopter. During that whole debate, the information minister waded in, adding a gem for which he went on to receive considerable ridicule, especially on social media, when he said that taking a helicopter was in fact cheaper because it cost just "Rs 50-55 km per litre" Prime Minister House 2. The PM and senior members of the government have repeatedly said that they will either have no protocol or have sharply reduced protocol and will ...
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A few questions about SSP Rao Anwar

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By Omar R Quraishi More than 2 months after a police encounter in which Naqeebullah Mehsud was killed and labelled a Taliban by SSP Rao Anwar, and several weeks after the said police officer went into hiding, he surfaced on March 21, and presented himself before the Supreme Court in Islamabad. He was promptly ordered arrested but not before the Honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saquib Nisar proudly proclaimed that the majesty of the Court had been maintained by the police officer's 'surrender' to the Court.  Prior to this, Rao Anwar had written twice to the Court, including once asking that his accounts be unfrozen -- and this happened during a period spanning several weeks where the Court was calling in senior police officials of the Sindh government and reprimanding them for failing to arrest the SSP and present him before the Court. Then, later, the Defence Ministry sought a week's time to find details of his whereabouts and present them to the Court...
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'Mainstreaming' & the upcoming 2018 Pakistan election

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By Omar R Quraishi The PML-N government of Nawaz Sharif began its tenure in early June in 2013. That mean's five years of the current dispensation will end in early June 2018 -- after that we will have 90 days of a caretaker government and general elections (unless they happen earlier due to an unforeseen circumstance, or don't happen at all, also because of any unforeseen circumstance) no later than early September of this year. I will write in more detail about the prospects of the major mainstream parties in the coming election at a later time. However, there has been much talk of late about the 'mainstreaming' of religious groups other than the parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam etc. in an effort to include them in the political mainstream. The first such example that comes to mind is the Milli Muslim League which many observers seem to think is an offshoot of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Last week, the MML won a big victory in its effort ...
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