Prime Minister Imran Khan: A relentless fighter
APRIL 7, 2020
Humanity is going through an unprecedented public health crisis stemming from COVID-19 pandemic that has the potential to change the course of history. From the Far East to the West, the pandemic has had an adverse impact on healthcare, economic and social aspects of the global community.
While most countries have enforced mandatory lockdowns and travel restrictions, not a single state is adequately equipped to deal with such a pressing crisis; whether from the developed or the developing world. Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea and Germany had adopted an early systematic approach to minimise the blowback but others such as Italy and Iran weren’t quite lucky with the latter suppressing outflow of information for weeks.
Both had a profoundly negative impact on neighbouring states unsurprisingly. Whereas, China, the origin of the pandemic, focused on flashpoints where blanket curfews were in place. From what is gathered, the virus cannot be entirely contained unless a viable vaccine is found that could take a year or so. In Pakistan, the initial days were indecisive since most people couldn’t grasp the gravity of the situation and kept on going with their daily routines. Had it not been for the timely intervention by SAPM for Health Dr. Zafar Mirza, the crisis could’ve turned out to be far worse than previously thought.
While Sindh government was the first to take drastic steps on provincial level, it was Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments that took the lead in enforcing a partial yet systematic lockdown without any media fanfare since the administration in Karachi adopted a haphazard approach in enforcing an ill-advised total lockdown whose ramifications were witnessed within days.
On federal level, the National Security Committee (NSC) took additional steps by temporarily suspending commercial air travel, closing down all international borders for inter-state travel and setting up dedicated wings for monitoring COVID-19 status, including the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
With the kind of healthcare system in place, Pakistan has fared comparatively much better in the region when a country like India is lagging behind owing to superstitious and politically motivated steps meant to cause internal anarchy.
Nevertheless, the onus lies on the public rather than the government itself in adopting safety precautions. The state is doing its level best in spreading mass awareness through electronic/print media and institutions such as the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) but it may not be enough owing to mass illiteracy and blissful ignorance.
Notably, it was often questioned whether Prime Minister Imran Khan was fully aware of the situation. The short answer is: Yes, he was. Dr. Mirza and SAPM on National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning Dr. Moeed Yusuf kept him in loop regularly from day one yet sections of the media ignored this basic fact in order to settle personal scores with PM Khan.
Till date, PM Khan has conducted several pressers and addresses to the nation in order to spread mass awareness. In some of these pressers, he was graceful enough to respond calmly when some popular broadcast journalists were disrespectful who acted in a haranguing manner.
The media is cautiously suggested to stand by the government in this hour of crisis for primetime broadcast journalists played an irresponsible role by implying a sectarian angle on the public’s mind especially when it came to pilgrims returning from Iran and those from the annual religious gathering in Raiwind. Indeed, most of these pilgrims had sheer lack of awareness yet the government did its level best in trying to quarantine them.
It’s another case when cases in affluent neighbourhoods of key urban centres erupted and spread drastically all because some of the privileged and supposedly educated lot chose to avoid being quarantined and attend its parties/wedding receptions with utter disregard.
One thing PM Khan repeatedly pleaded the masses through his public addresses is that the working class would be severely affected if a lockdown is placed, which turned out to be aptly true since daily wagers and low-income households were forced to beg on the streets. Interestingly, the Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom agrees with this notion.
Lockdowns aren’t an ideal solution to this crisis since they cannot be sustained for long. Looking at how it’s turning out in Italy, Spain, France and the United States (a country with the highest number of global cases), one isn’t even sure if it’s even working accurately since the number of cases/mortality rates keep varying from time to time.
For a developing country like Pakistan, a lockdown would be a self-made disaster in making if prolonged beyond a specific period. Apart from an economic crisis, mental health/suicide cases could potentially rise exponentially resulting from loneliness and financial hardships.
Similarly, op-eds in major international publications such as The Washington Post and The Financial Times also advocate that nationwide lockdowns are not a sustainable cure to deal with an unusual crisis like this.
When I asked for a comment on how the prime minister is dealing with the situation, Muhammad Bilal Lakhani, a leading columnist based in New York City who writes for the Express Tribune, had this to say, ‘Imran Khan’s leadership on the economic impact of the COVID-19 lockdown showcases what drives him the most as a leader: an empathy for the most vulnerable in our society.
Khan stood his ground – despite overwhelming pressure on traditional & social media – to balance the need to contain the disease and support the poor/vulnerable through a lockdown. He announced a PKR 1200 Billion relief package, which among other things, will give direct, emergency cash support to one in three Pakistanis.’
Well I couldn’t agree more with him. Another key aspect of the emergency cash support is the Insaf Imdad program recently launched by the Punjab government which aims to provide relief to poverty-stricken households. Upon the writing of this piece, some 170,000 households have already been provided relief which shows that it’s a success story.
On a separate note, I also asked for a comment from Faisal Sherjan, the Director of the National Incubation Center (NIC) based at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), on the prime minister’s crisis handling and he had the following to state, ‘A leader is defined by the difficult decisions he makes. COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world and every country has reacted in a different way. Imran Khan faced the dilemma of locking down the country and exposing the most vulnerable. In spite of virulent criticism, he has responded with empathy for the poor. The manner in which he has led the nation’s response will resonate for a long time.’
These comments from some of the leading members of the media and entrepreneurial community tell us exactly how PM Khan is an empathetic leader with a vision who thinks about the public at-large and prefers to balance out the crisis by looking beyond the popular approaches adopted worldwide. In fact, he was amongst the first global leaders who thought it out before stepping in directly.
Moreover, he recently announced two important steps which can potentially transform how the country aims to help the destitute. First and foremost is the ‘Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for COVID-19’ that can assist in mitigating any impact on low-income households.
Secondly, the announcement of the ‘Corona Relief Tiger Force’ shows that an army of young volunteers can be of great help in distributing essentials and ration for the needy across the country (reminiscing the donation campaign days for the purpose of developing the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Hospital Lahore during the early 1990s).
At the time of writing this piece, some 600,000 people have already registered themselves when hardly a week has passed by. This implies that the youth, which forms the bulk of the country’s demographics, has high confidence in PM Khan’s leadership.
Indeed, cases have crossed 3,100 (as of 5th April 2020) nationwide and much more needs to be done when it comes to testing but why do criticism for the sake of it when a crisis like this requires singular unity?
PM Khan is relentlessly fighting for the survival of the state and his team should be appreciated and given encouragement when it needs the most especially when it’s also working to repatriate local and foreign citizens through diplomatic channels and airlines such as PIA and Qatar Airways.
For those reading me for the first time, I am one of the biggest critics of the prime minister’s administration when it comes to handling the Foreign Office’s affairs and general bureaucratic hiccups yet I strongly feel that he’s giving his best shot in dealing with the pandemic upon objectively analysing his performance. This crisis has no religion, sect or ethnicity, and if we are to succeed in prevailing over it then it’s time to lend hand to the state.
The writer is Associate Editor (Diplomatic Affairs), Daily Times. He tweets @mhassankhan06
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