Zaheer-ud-Din Babar
The impact of the corona virus is still going strong. Till the pandemic is resolved, there will undoubtedly exist a wide range of speculation and observation. Scientists, Religious personalities, thinkers, politicians, and social scientists all have different point of views about the prevailing situation. The majority of the thinking mind believes that the corona virus has a much severe impact than many of us think we did. In different parts of the world, thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands more are still under treatment. Apparently, this virus originated from China’s province Wuhan, however more than 209 countries are suffering from this pandemic. The ground realities are very harsh. A major problem is the fact that America claims itself to be a superpower but thousands of American lives lose their life due to this corona virus.
A worrying question that arises here is that if developed countries are struggling to overcome this pandemic, then how can a developing country like Pakistan could possibly hope to effectively contain this virus. Pakistan, however, has taken steps to curtail the spread of the virus. Now the situation is that, in Pakistan, in all the major cities, routine life has stopped , and the labors are sitting on the road side with their with their tools , with the prospects of finding work very slim due to the restrictions imposed by the government. The major problem is that the needy families are very shy concerning the matter of coming forward and telling people about their needs. In this context, the real challenge for the administration is making sure that every poor family have some kind of food. Nowadays, we observe a lot of posts on social media through which people are trying to show their “kindness”. Our society’s dark side is that, in these days, there is lot of “Awami” personality here and there, which actually hosts photo shoots, for example, they have their pictures taken whilst giving rations to the poor, however they do it only for the photo shoot and food isn’t actually distributed to a lot of people. Pakistan is a Muslim country, where Islam teaches us that whenever u help any needy person, you should do it for the sake of pleasing Allah and not for the purpose of “showing off”.
There is no doubt that in the prevailing situation, hundreds or even thousands of Pakistanis are doing their best to help the needy and poor families. It is also encouraging to note that Pakistan is considered a few countries of the world where the people like donating charity. We all know that there exist country wide welfare trusts where food is given and distributed to all needy persons. The madrassas system is also a big chain where religious education and free shelter for deserving people is available.
Another important question concerning the corona virus and its impact is, how much is the nation prepared and determined to get over this unprecedented crisis. It is very easy to burden all the responsibilities on the governments’ shoulder but we all know that current challenge is beyond the control of the government. If we are to overcome this challenge, the only way for that to happen is to jointly, as a nation, fight this pandemic. It is also a bitter fact that there is a no short cut for ultimate success. Every crisis has some opportunities hidden amongst it. It is quite possible that, during the fight with this corona virus pandemic, we can reform our health system, education system and more or less social system.
Concerning our country, history has provided proof that we have lot of potential to survive. During the October 2015 earthquake, there is a major example when the whole Pakistani nation came out of their houses to help the needy families.
In these difficult days, although the government announces they will give thousands of rupees to those peoples whose earnings are effected due to the prevailing situation, we all remember that our country’s survival on this pandemic depends on if the people and the government are willing to come together and put aside their differences to fight the pandemic. Only then can we overcome this great challenge placed in front of us.
