- Back to the paradox of Buridan’s ass
The Prime Minister has all along opposed lockdowns. He remains unrepentant despite listening to the views of a team of visiting Chinese doctors and the advice of the WHO. In his keenness to make the construction industry functioning, he has provided it several incentives. The revival of the construction sector however is not possible without the simultaneous functioning of dozens of ancillary industries that will employ thousands of labourers. The labour’s daily travel to industrial sites and back will require optimal functioning of road and rail transport. With tens of thousands of commuters traveling together in packed vehicles or engaged side by side in production activity, the coronavirus could spread like wild fire. This has stopped an otherwise impatient US President Donald Trump to continue to postpone the date for the lifting of restrictions in the USA.
Wary of the fast spread of virus, Sindh was the first province to impose a lockdown. Fearful of the virus taking roots in the overcrowded slum areas of Karachi, the Sindh Chief Minister continues to support the lockdown. . Despite political rivalry, the harsh reality has forced PTI-ruled provinces also to follow suit, albeit more flexibly. While the PM praised the Balochistan Chief Minister profusely for (mis)managing Taftan, political antagonism stopped him from recognizing that but for the Sindh administration’s early tests of the Taftan entrants, the virus would have spread all over the country in no time.
The package given to construction industries envisages resumption of productive activity from April 14, the day the countrywide restrictions on business activities and gatherings will be lifted. The Sindh and Punjab governments have however sought at least a week-long extension in the lockdown. On Friday, the Prime Minister received a briefing on the issue from KP, the province where the most coronavirus-related deaths have taken place.
There are complaints that the federal government is not taking along Sindh, despite its being the second-most populous province. The Sindh government has protested that its hospitals are not being supplied the needed equipment. What is more, the federal government is not facilitating Sindh in the import of equipment that the province is purchasing with its own money. What must not be lost sight of is that any residue of coronavirus in one province will endanger the entire country.
