Ripple Effect

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 ...

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...