By: Zaheerud din Babar
The impact of the corona virus on Pakistan’ economic conditions is deep routed. The latest figures shows that the Punjab government faces a loss of around 18 billion, with more 3 to 4 million people are expected to become jobless. In this major province, the amount of people currently below the poverty lines has increased to 33 percent. According to the media, these figures were presented to the Punjab chief minister and were highlighted in the report from provincial department progress and planning. In this particular report, it is also mentioned that in the coming days, the GDP growth will decrease by 9 percent. According to P&D report, if the provincial governments does not take solid steps to control the economic situation, there are much more problems that we will have to face in the times ahead.
The tragic truth is that, on one side, the country is facing the worsening economic situation due to the pandemic, however the political leadership is still arguing with each other on petty issues. The common Pakistani expected that our political and religious leadership would sit together and start brainstorming ways on how to lessen the miseries of the common man. There is no doubt that, in the present situation, our political leadership has failed to grasp the impact of the coronavirus fallout.
It is encouraging to see that the death toll due to the coronavirus is small in Pakistan. One claim is that the weather situation in south Asia has aided us in controlling the death rate. We all know that Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and all the other countries of this region have no ideal health facilities. Although the corona virus is present in more than 200 countries in the world, each country has been impacted differently due to the coronavirus. One argument is that, after the disastrous entry of corona virus into our world, the international community should realize that health is more important than ammunition. Another aspect of this issue is that, till date, all the scientific achievements have not prevented the virus from infecting more than million people worldwide. There is no doubt that humans achieve a lot but there exist a lot of technological fields which are still in need of more attention and effort.
One question which is continuously asked is whether it is possible for the world’s influential countries to join hands with each other to make a plan to prevent a future pandemic from occurring. Unfortunately, the political and economic interests are dominant over the moral values. The major powers of the globe pay only lip service to humanity. In every era of history, the world leaders’ basic priority is their personal or country’ interests. We must understand that if the so called world community are serious to end poverty, injustice and illiteracy, then they must take care of the welfare of their citizens.
It is horrible that the virus has not spread to every corner of the globe, especially the third world countries where healthcare is of poor quality. Sadly, the lesson of history is that the undeveloped countries future can never be secure and bright till the world open heartedly invests towards the welfare of their people. Here the question for us, as a Pakistani society, is how plausible is that, after the end of corona virus episode, our political class gives significant importance to our health sector.
