3rd Blog post
26th February 2020, Pakistani special minister to Health Zafar Mirza had reported two cases of Corona virus. In Sindh within a couple of hours all Schools were shut down and after a couple of weeks on the 23rd of March 2020 Sindh was completely shutdown and closed off. This was what needed to be done however, the floodgates of Inequality were opened in Sindh and the prime example was Karachi. The PKR to USD conversion rates spiked from Rs 154.40 to 166.53 from 23rd March to now. Further to give insult to injury Pakistan’s GDP growth rate will shrink to 2.6% from 3.3%, while inflation will remain around 11.5% for 2020. The economy will take enormous hits from high capital outflows, lost export earnings due to falling commodity prices and currency depreciation, with an overall impact likely worse than the 2008 economic crash. This lock down has only affected the poor for now I expect it to start affecting the middle class soon. Even before the Corona lockdown daily wage workers started to vanish, in the past we could visibly see them in Karachi at Hassan Square, Gizri and Bahadrabad the daily wage workers who sit on sidewalks slowly started to vanish. The informal sector provides as much as 75 per cent of the total jobs in the city, up from 48 percent in 1974, and today is responsible for 60 percent of all housing needs, which range from assistance for credit, construction material,technical assistance. We see it more and more when the Prime Minister starts fighting with his own demons on to have a complete lock down or a partial though Sindh already is completely locked down. Several members of Hindu and Christian communities said that they are being denied ration by authorities in Pakistan’s Sindh Province amid corona virus pandemic. They were denied ration by authorities because of their religion (Times of India, 2020) . Referring back to Michael Lipton and Robert Bates Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World development (1977). The Zero sum game is apparent in the Corona Outbreak. The Urban classes though affected by the Virus are not affected far enough as they still have their houses. The rural class has had to have to walk back home barefoot to their village with their dreams crushed by the blistering pain that the last Rs 2000 they spent to start living in Karachi while all their hope and dreams were washed away with the bleach used to sterilize the cities roads.
The unplanned regions in Karachi which consist mainly of katchi abadis and squatter settlements, have nearly all been advanced by way of informal sector marketers via the illegal subdivision and sale of state land. Most of these settlements are in the peri-urban areas of Karachi, along natural drainage channels that now deliver Karachi’s sewerage to the ocean, alongside railway traces, and in regions prone to flooding. Because the position of international donors increases in Pakistan, political choices should be taken
concerning problems of countrywide sovereignty and neighborhood manage over decisions. With inter-country wide companies dictating the monetary and political agendas of the authorities at a countrywide level, political manipulate over policy
has waned. this is also manifested at a Karachi stage, where the privatisation of nearby government institutions like the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board have provoked commentators to argue that, It’s far a depend of deep concern that Islamabad
and Washington are foisting their privatization program upon Karachi, without
the clean transparency and huge citizen participation that might make certain consensus on so essential a count number because the provision of water and sewerage services. The reason I am concerned regarding the Kachi abadis is there must be some sort of effect that will play on these people due to Corona Virus. The fact of the matter is that this has changed the thinking and mindset of people. People will start washing their hands more and hygiene will play a vital role in each of our lives. Can a country like Pakistan that already has weak sewage and water treatment handle such a load? Will this over flood our sewage and water pipelines. Hand Sanitizers do help and are effective in killing most germs but doctors have urged that hand washing for 20 seconds is necessary. Though this is not something to look down upon. We can surely hope that because of the lock down mother nature will have a huge drop air pollution and other sorts. I firmly and strongly believe when this crisis is over hand washing will be a staple in all industries will the waste of water and resources completely fracture the sewage system affecting the Kachi abadis greatly and during monsoon season will matter tip the equilibrium to complete destruction. I speculate that it will. I speculate that by the end of July 2020 there will be more that 300,000 cases in Pakistan alone based on WHO and UN reports.
My own personal opinion happens to be the following while I reflect on how all things are at halt during this crisis during the last month of March, where all of us have been isolated from family and our own peers and our normal human interactions within the frames of our society have been temporarily changed. The Sindh government has extended the lock down from 1st of April to the 15th of April. The harsh reality is that Pakistan at this time has around 1000 cases while KPK, Balochistan and Punjab are in partial lockdowns and Sindh only certain essential stores are open the situation will get worse as time passes by. Pakistan is a country that inadequately equipped with the right tools to combat this pandemic. Though cases are low now compared to America and other Major cities of the world things will go out of hand fast. If other sectors of Karachi and other cities are lifted and this virus is not taken seriously the number of cases will go out of hand at a much higher rate than around 100 cases a day. The health sector is not properly equipped with the right tools to sustain themselves in a country like Pakistan. Though China is sending Pakistan relief packages where a certain amount of ventilators are gifted to Pakistan far more will be needed for Pakistan to survive.
On the other side of the rainbow while there is a lock down in Sindh Pakistan will not be able to thrive economically if Karachi is completely shut down Karachi is at the economic forefront for Pakistan and if the industries that are in Karachi that sustain the rest of Pakistan remain closed it will also hurt Pakistan in its own way. Karachi is the financial and industrial capital of Pakistan. As of 2019, Karachi had an estimated GDP (PPP) of $164 billion. For Pakistan develop and consolidate its economy Karachi is the most important cog in the machine. Some sort of ease of lock down is necessary for Pakistan especially in Sindh so that Karachi is opened up and some industries are able to function.
Wilson, R., & Lipton, M. (1977). Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development. The Economic Journal, 87(347), 611. doi: 10.2307/223158
Desk, W. (2020, March 23). Pakistan reports sixth death from coronavirus, number of confirmed cases rises to 882. Geo News. https://www.geo.tv/latest/278713-pakistan-reports-sixth-death-from-coronavirus-number-of-confirmed-cases-rise-to
Reuters. (2020, March 31). Pakistan will be among hardest-hit economies by coronavirus crisis, says UN report. DAWN.COM. https://www.dawn.com/news/1545267
S. Akbar Zaidi. (1997). Politics, Institutions, Poverty: The Case of Karachi. Economic and Political Weekly, 32(51), 3282-3293. Retrieved July 6, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4406207
A. (2020, April 1). COVID-19: Hindus being denied rations in Pakistan amid lockdown. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/covid-19-hindus-being-denied-rations-in-pakistan-amid-lockdown/videoshow/74929571.cms
Cities and Development Blogpost 