- And a foot-in-mouth remark
It was a good thing that Prime Minister Imran Khan came to address the National Assembly. The bad thing was that as usual he left soon after without listening to the opposition.
In his speech Mr Khan justified his government’s coronavirus policy, tried to negate the notion of his being vindictive and maintained that his foreign policy had helped Pakistan.
The PM has obstinately stuck to his opposition to the lockdown ignoring warnings from WHO that two weeks back ranked Pakistan among the top 10 countries in the world reporting the highest number of new Covid-19 cases. The PTI government also ignored WHO,advice to enhance daily testing capacity to 50,000 to assess the actual incidence of the disease. Last week, when the number of cases came down due to a reduction in tests, this was wrongly ascribed to smart lockdowns and the people developing herd immunity. The hollowness of the claims became clear on Thursday when with the numbers started increasing once again and with 4,044 additions, Pakistan’s tally of coronavirus infections reached 191,970. Meanwhile the daily fatality count shot up to 148 from 60 a day earlier. The inflexibility on the part of the PM on the issue could lead to tragic consequences.
The PM claimed he had no enmity with anyone and most of the cases against his opponents were filed before his assumption of the PM’s office. The claim sounds hollow keeping in view what he told a rally in Washington last year, the way he castigated NAB for being slow in sentencing his political opponents, and the way PNL(N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah was arrested in a narcotics case. The unending media trial of the opposition leaders conducted by the ARU chief Shahzad Akbar is yet another example of the PM’s animus against the opposition.
The claim that his government’s relations with the USA are based on trust is belied by the USA’s annual report on terrorism for 2019 which alleges that Pakistan allows terrorist groups targeting Afghanistan and India to operate from its territory. The PM’s naivety is likely to cost Pakistan heavily, particularly after he declared the arch terrorist Osama Ben Laden a “martyr.” The remark showing a soft corner for terrorists will not go unnoticed in the Western countries, China and the brotherly Muslim states.
