By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan has decided to lift its coronavirus lockdown on May 9 (Saturday) in a phased manner.
“We have decided to lift the lockdown … I must make it clear that lockdown will be lifted from Saturday … not from tomorrow but from Saturday,” Prie Minister Imran Khan said in a televised briefing after the NCC meeting in the capital Islamabad on Thursday.
“We are doing it because the people are in extreme difficulty. Small business owners, daily-wagers, labourers are facing difficulties. We fear that small and medium enterprises may completely vanish if we do not lift the lockdown,” Imran Khan said.
During his speech, the prime minister added that the government had earlier opened the construction sector and now it has decided to open industries connected with it in different phases. He emphasized on the need of maintaining social distancing and following the SOPs earlier prepared.
صوبوں سے مکمل مشاورت کی گئی۔ سیر حاصل بحث کے بعد فیصلہ کیا گیا کہ لاک ڈاؤن کو بتدریج ختم کر دیا جائے گا۔ تعمیراتی صنعت پہلے ہی کھول دی گئی تھی، اب اس سے منسلک صنعتوں کو کھولنے کا فیصلہ کیا گیا ہے#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/1GUOpmJyxn
— Prime Minister's Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) May 7, 2020
Imran Khan said that small shops and small markets would remain open from Sehri time ( 3.00 a.m.) to 5.00 p.m. five days a week.
However, the big markets, shopping malls, educational institutions, recreational parks, marriage halls and restaurants would remain closed.
“Though the curve is going up, but we can’t say when we would witness the peak. Even countries that have flat curves can not surely say anything about it,” he said, adding that Pakistan did not witness a peak in the coronavirus cases and deaths as was witnessed in the European countries.
“We did not face the kind of pressure that European countries or the rest of the world had to face,” he said.
Reiterating that Pakistan’s situation was different from the rest of the world, the premier said, the government has decided to make things easier for people.
Expressing that he himself was in favour of opening public transport, the premier said the provinces could not agree on the opening of public transport at this moment. “We do not have complete consensus on opening public transport yet,” he said.
“We have asked the provinces to make SOPs so that public transport could be made functional. Public transport has even been opened in the countries where 30,000 people passed away due to coronavirus,” he added.
He said that the provinces had agreed to re-open schools on July 15 instead of June 1, the earlier deadline for resumption of educational activities in the country.
Commenting on the issue of bringing overseas Pakistan to the country, Imran said roughly 125,000 Pakistanis wanted to come back but “we need to go for self-quarantine if we wish to bring them back”.
“When we bring people from abroad we have to conduct tests, keep them in quarantine and we do not have that many resources,” he maintained, adding that “Pakistanis coming from abroad will have to go for self-quarantine.”
