- Important questions await answers
Questions are being raised all over the country about the performance of the government in handling the fast spreading pandemic in Pakistan. There have been cases of gross negligence like the tragic mismanagement in Taftan that turned the place into an incubator of the virus spreading it from Balochistan and Sindh all the way to Gilgit-Baltistan. This was followed by the Punjab government’s blunder of allowing the Tablighi Jamaat to hold its gathering in Raiwind. For three days thousands of preachers from all parts of Pakistan and dozens of foreign countries prayed, ate and slept in close quarters. Scores of groups formed at the gathering for spreading the message disseminated the virus to all the four provinces besides AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan. Instead of banning large religious gatherings Punjab government allowed two consecutive Friday prayers to be attended by tens of thousands of worshippers out of sheer political opportunism. Last Friday, despite a decision not to allow more than five persons to undertake collective prayers, Islamabad administration took no action against several prayer leaders including Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid for leading large Friday congregations.
Amidst complaints against not being provided Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), at least one doctor has died, several tested positive and a senior doctor is under treatment. Dr Zafar Mirza should have precisely specified what kind of protective equipment was to be used while looking after coronavirus patients of different stages. Failure to issue detailed instructions was bound to lead to misuse and shortages. Doctors in Sindh were wearing black bands in protest for over a week and have now threatened not to visit wards where confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 were admitted if not provided PPE. Doctors in Quetta came out in protest and a number of them were baton charged and arrested.
There are complaints about Dr Mirza’s failure to enhance the number of tests, the shortage of equipment and trained staff to expand the testing. Even Dr Ataur Rehman, chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology has called for urgently raising the testing capacity to enable the country to enhance it to 40-50 thousand tests per day. There were no credible answers to these question from the government at the teleconference.