War plans look good on paper

• Until you meet the enemy

From an earlier state of euphoria, SAPM Zafar Mirza has veered into panic mode. Instead of continuing his crusade against the lockdowners, Dr Mirza threatens to impose “strict lockdown” all over the country if the infection-cum-death rate continues to rise. The childish hopes that ‘hot and dry’ weather will mitigate the virus threat combined with a casual attitude towards the pandemic was bound to make people take the threat lightly, throw caution to the winds and violate SOPs in mosques and markets. The rise being widely noted is the outcome of the PTI government’s own wishful thinking.

The NDMA chairman is upbeat about preparations to deal with the spread of covid-19. He rattles off statistics  to prove enough preparations have been made to accommodate many times more patients in hospitals. But ventilators, ICU beds, testing kits, PPEs, and so on, are no more than weapons in the war against covid-19. The virus meanwhile is fast taking toll of doctors and medical staff who have to fight the war. By the end of April more than 440 health care workers had tested positive and eight had fallen dead. What’s more putting thousands of corona-affected patients in quarantine camps and hospitals will put a big pressure on government finances.

One wishes NDMA chairman Godspeed as he proceeds to fight the locust swarms. The preparations he has made look impressive on paper. These include 375,000 litres of pesticide gifted by China and another 50,000 litres by Japan. Fighting wars with foreign weapons has not been a good experience in the past. In the present case the help has arrived sufficiently late as locusts have already damaged cotton, mango, onion, chilli, tomato and other crops in various districts of Balochistan, Sindh and Southern Punjab. The NDMA is currently making a plan to deal with the anticipated floods.

The best way to deal with national threats is through national consensus for which the PTI government is not willing to be game. National consensus cannot be created through bureaucratic or technocratic arrangements but through direct talks between the ruling party leadership and the major opposition parties, and by putting life into Parliament.

from Pakistan Today https://ift.tt/3eph50P