Siraj sees a potential Nobel laureate
Siraj-ul-Haq of the Jamaat-e-Islami, according to Daily Express (27 March 2020), took a dim view of the government’s promise of Rs. 3,000 to those facing financial trouble due to the Coronavirus lockdown. In Siraj-ul-Haq’s view, the Prime Minister deserves a Nobel for proposing the formula that people could run a household on that sum of money.
Love in a Time of Corona?
The PML-N’s Marriyum Aurangzeb, according to Daily Express (29 March 2020), opined that while PM Imran Khan could not ensure testing and screeing at the borders, his focus remained on doing politics at this time. She went on to note that the nation was saying “Corona, Corona”, but that the PM’s own sob-story showed no signs of abating (qaum “Corona, Corona” kar rahi hai, aap ka rona hee khatam nahin ho raha).
Pandemic control
According to Daily Jang (29 March 2020), North Korea is reportedly the only country of the world to not have a single case of Coronavirus. The report quoted experts as saying that if the government of North Korea was being truthful in this claim, it could be due to the country’s strict isolation from the rest of the world.
On the frontlines
Daily Dunya (27 March 2020) reported that a patient suffering symptoms of Coronavirus was discharged from Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital and went to Services Hospital to get herself admitted. Her brother informed Dunya that at Jinnah Hospital, when she asked for the results of her test after 24 hours had elapsed, she was told that her samples had been mixed up with others and so new samples would have to be taken. At this point, the patient decided she had to take matters into her own hand and demanded to be discharged so that she could go to another medical facility.
Mufti Muneeb calls out hypocrisy
Religious scholar Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman was quoted by Daily Dunya (29 March 2020) as saying that the Sindh government should stop its hypocrisy (munafiqat) and be decisive. He said that if the authorities wanted to seal mosques, they could do so via local police officials, and that prayer leaders and mosque administrators would not break the seal, but that the burden of this act must be on the conscience of the government (magar seal karnay ka wabaal hakumat ke sar pe hoga). He was further quoted as having said that the Sindh government was busy in catching prayer leaders (pakkar dakkar mein lagi hui hai) and that this would lead to hatred being engendered. He suggested that the government should seek to make its efforts succeed by taking the religious leaders on board and obtaining their cooperation.