Imtiaz Gul

Beside the spiraling COVID19 crisis, a storm seems to be gathering around Prime Minister Imran Khan – beginning with his long interaction with some media persons on March 24 and increasingly visible in the commentary in some of the TV shows and columns. It is a holier-than-thou targeting of Khan.

As if this was not enough, even the LHC has asked the government to explain why it allowed coronavirus victims into the country.

The honourable judges seem to have been in isolation and did not follow news; almost all governments made exceptions to enable their nationals get back home – from the US/Canada to China/Singapore, all of them – even if infected.

Why wouldn’t the Pakistani government permit its own nationals if they wanted to get home?

It was a pure administrative issue to facilitate intending Pakistanis to return.

So why interfere in an executive function?

At a time, when China’s avowed rival President Donald Trump sets aside geo-politics and chooses to speak to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a joint path against COVID19, political and media wizards in Pakistan continue to nitpick in their attempt to pin down both politically and economically embattled government.

The rest of the world is groping for joint solutions but here in this unfortunate country, the judiciary, a certain group of anchors and a few politicians appear preoccupied with the sole objective of vilifying a government they dislike, if not abhor.

Most are pillorying the government for “inadequate, faulty responses” to the COVID19 attack as if the predecessor governments had laid out the best of medical healthcare in Pakistan.

Little do they realise – or probably choose to ignore – that even the best equipped countries – be it the tiny Singapore or Europe’s economic engine Germany or Japan – they are all struggling in responses for multiple reasons.

What does the conduct of these charlatans and mavericks signify? How will they explain the tens of thousands infections and deaths in Italy, Spain and the US?

What Pakistan faces today is indeed a novel crisis – beside the Novel Corona Virus -” And this is a crisis of

# Integrity

# Intellectual poverty

# Political dishonesty

#Business selfishness

#Group interests

# Parochialism Petty mindedness further worsens these multiple crisis. All the aforementioned traits have indeed left Pakistani people gasping for relief from the cumulative consequences of seven decades of misrule and cronyism.