[VIDEO] Developed world has experienced pandemic differently : PM Imran Khan in WEF video call

[MenInG]

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the developed world has experienced the Covid-19 pandemic differently as compared to countries in the subcontinent.

Addressing a session of the World Economic Forum via video link, he said: "Firstly, the speed with which the virus spread in the Europe and the US, it didn't spread in the same way here.

"We had to face a twin challenge. One was to stem the growth of the virus, but the bigger challenge is how to mitigate the effects of lockdown on our population and rising poverty."

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Prime Minister Imran Khan said that millions would have starved if the government had not lifted the lockdown meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either daily-wagers or are self-employed, and these are 25 million families [...] I'd say it has affected 120-150 million in total.

"These people are facing stark poverty, and unless these people work, they will starve. So what we did was, and I'm proud of my government for this, was that we started a cash disbursement programme."

However, this was only a short term solution, which is why we decided to ease the lockdown, he said. "There's no way the government can give out handouts to feed people for that long."

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the coming year is not just a challenge for Pakistan but for the entire world.

"[When the pandemic hit] every country looked within and became insular. But ultimately we are all connected and the response has to be global."

He added that he has spoken to the leaders of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt and they had informed him that they were facing similar issues such as drop in exports and revenue.

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Prime Minister Imran Khan said that a lot of the developing world does not have fiscal space to deal with the economic fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak.

"G-20 countries are coming up with a debt relief [initiative] but we need more details. The reason why there should be [such an initiative] is because we need that fiscal space to divert resources to healthcare and the environment."

 

[MenInG]

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an online session of the World Economic Forum (WEF), called upon the developed countries to provide debt relief to poorer nations that were struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis that has battered their economies.

"The experience of the developed world is completely different to what we are facing in the developing world. Countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh — specifically the Indian subcontinent — our experience is somewhat different"

"The speed at which COVID-19 [the disease caused by the novel coronavirus] spread in Europe and the United States, we're not experiencing the same sort of speed.

"On the other hand, we are still facing rising number of cases and we still haven't reached our peak here" in Pakistan, he aded.

"From day one, the difference between, say, what we've seen in Europe and the United States — and, in fact, even in China — is that we had to face this twin challenge: one was to stop [and] stem the growth of the virus, hence, the lockdown.

"But the bigger challenge and increasingly in our country is how to mitigate the effects of lockdown on our population with the rising poverty.

"We, in Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either daily wagers or get paid weekly or are self-employed. When we [impose a] lockdown like the whole of the world to stop the spread of the virus all these people became unemployed.

"When we are talking about 25 million workers, we are talking about 25 million families. And actually it has affected around almost 120-150 million people [who] face stark poverty.

"Unless the men and the women work, they cannot feed their families. What my government did was we launched a cash programme and reached nearly 15 million families with cash transfers but this is only a short-term solution."

"Therefore, despite the raising cases in our country, we have decided to ease our lockdown and reopen our construction industry so that people can find employment because there is no way that the government can provide for all. The only way we can do that is by providing employment.

"The way forward that we have this year as a nation is that we realise that we have to live with this virus at least until a vaccine comes out and balances it. We have raised a volunteer force in this regard — of one million volunteers — who will help the administration as it is already overburdened and so are the law enforcement agencies.

"This volunteer force will encourage people not to have large gatherings and spread awareness among masses to follow the SOPs [standard operating procedures] necessary to stem the virus.

"Just before this pandemic hit us, we had managed to balance our twin budgets — the current account and fiscal deficit. After very tough reforms, we had thought of the growth of the economy.

"The coming year is not just a challenge for Pakistan but for the world. There has to be more interaction between the couturiers in dealing with this challenge so far.

When it hit the countries, they took unprecedented measures so every country looked inside and became insular. I feel that we are connected and the response has to be global.

"There has to be a way of picking up countries specially in the developing world. I have spoken to the Ethiopian prime minister, the Egyptian president, [and] the Nigerian prime minister [and] all of them are facing similar problems as us.

"Their exports are falling but also, additionally, we face the problem of falling remittances. Our country depends a lot on the remittance from the Gulf countries and due to the fall in oil prices that has had an effect on it.

"We have geared up and our economic think-tanks are mulling over how we are going to deal with the coming year.

"At the same time, we have developed a very good National Command and Control Centre [NCOC] and the whole idea is that we aim to balance the whole thing. They monitor where the cases are growing, how we are going to deal with them, isolate individual areas where there is fear of spreading, and, at the same time, how we can keep our economy going."

'Devastated lives and livelihoods'

A day ago, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the premier will discuss pertinent issues during his address to the world leaders.

FM Qureshi said the premier will apprise the international community of Pakistan's viewpoint on coronavirus pandemic, situation in India-occupied Kashmir, and his debt relief proposal for debilitated economies of the world.

According to a WEF report, risk managers expect a prolonged global recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Half of the risk managers expect bankruptcies and industry consolidation, the failure of industries to recover, and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the young.

“The crisis has devastated lives and livelihoods. It has triggered an economic crisis with far-reaching implications and revealed the inadequacies of the past,” said Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum.

Pakistan 18th most-affected country

Pakistan is also the 18th most-affected country from the deadly coronavirus across the world as the number of COVID-19 cases surged past 45,000.

Details: With over 45,000 COVID-19 cases, Pakistan 18th most affected country in the world

According to data from the US-based Johns Hopkins University, which has maintained a dashboard of COVID-19 cases worldwide, Pakistan is listed at 19 in terms of the number of people infected, out of a total of 188 countries.

As of reporting time, Pakistan has recorded 47,176 coronavirus cases and more than 1,000 deaths.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/288858-co...n-to-address-wef-session-via-video-link-today

 

[Syed1]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="da" dir="ltr">Pakistan Under NS | Pakistan Under IK <a href="https://t.co/lPTCPQdKOr">pic.twitter.com/lPTCPQdKOr</a></p>— نیک رینــچ ™ (@NaikRooh) <a href="https://twitter.com/NaikRooh/status/1262877463580942340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


After decades the world is listening to what Pak has to say.... No wonder the Hindutva brigade next door are getting stomach ache.

 

[MenInG]

Last 24 hours:

Biggest daily jump in cases in Islamabad
Biggest daily jump in cases in Karachi
Biggest daily jump in cases in Sindh
Biggest daily jump in Covid-19 death in Pakistan
Biggest daily jump in Covid-19 deaths in Sindh
Biggest daily jump in Clovis-19 deaths in Punjab

 

[MenInG]

Video added to Op - well worth a watch to understand why people respect this man so much.

 

[pakistani pride]

Last 24 hours:

Biggest daily jump in cases in Islamabad
Biggest daily jump in cases in Karachi
Biggest daily jump in cases in Sindh
Biggest daily jump in Covid-19 death in Pakistan
Biggest daily jump in Covid-19 deaths in Sindh
Biggest daily jump in Clovis-19 deaths in Punjab

Please also give the numbers.
On average about 7.000 deaths happen in Pakistan the number of deaths due to covid 19 are nothing in comparison.

 

[Abdullah719]

PM makes a strong case for debt relief at WEF

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said a large number of developing countries did not have fiscal space to deal with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak and called for debt relief to deal with the situation.

Addressing the “Covid Action Platform” hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) through video link, he said G-20 countries were coming up with a debt relief initiative but more details were needed. “The reason why there should be such an initiative is because we need that fiscal space to divert resources to healthcare and environment. I talked to the heads of Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt and they informed me that they are facing a similar situation,” he added.

Spoiler

PM Khan said that due to limited resources the developing countries faced a dual challenge — combating the pandemic and dealing with poverty.

He said Pakistan could not afford a prolonged lockdown and millions would have starved if the lockdown was not lifted. “In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either daily wage earners or are self-employed, and these are 25 million families; I will say it has affected 120-150 million people in total,” he added.

“These people are facing stark poverty, and unless these people work, they will starve, so what we did, and I am proud of my government for this, was that we started a cash disbursement programme,” he told the forum.

However, he said, this was only a short-term solution, which is why “we decided to ease the lockdown, as there is no way the government can give out handouts to feed people for too long”.

PM Khan said the experience of the developed world was completely different from what had been faced by the developing world. “In countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, specifically the Indian subcontinent, our experience is somewhat different. The speed at which Covid-19 spread in Europe and the United States, we are not experiencing the same sort of speed and we have yet not reached our peak here,” he added.

He said the coming year was not just a challenge for Pakistan but for the entire world, as every country looked within and became insular, but ultimately “we are all connected and the response has to be global”.

“The way forward that we have this year as a nation is that we realise that we have to live with this virus at least until a vaccine comes out and balances it. We have raised a volunteer force in this regard — of one million volunteers — who will help the administration as it is already overburdened and so are the law enforcement agencies,” he added.

Nation has to live with virus

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Tele-Health Platform (service through WhatsApp) launched to register doctors and other health practitioners and provide free online health service to patients, Prime Minister Khan said the nation would have to live with coronavirus for at least a year and more and more doctors would be needed to cope up with the situation as Pakistan becomes the 25th country to have reported over 1,000 deaths from the viral disease.

Pakistan becomes the sixth most affected country in terms of deaths in Asia after Iran, China, Turkey, India and Indonesia. The number of Covid-19 cases in the world has crossed the five million mark.

“The viral disease will continue to exit at least till the end of this year unless a vaccine comes into the market and till that time we have to live with the virus,” the prime minister said, adding that a large number of people had been affected economically by coronavirus in the country.

Talking about health facilities in the country, PM Khan said that even the developed countries were facing a severe health facility crisis, but due to the already dilapidated condition of the health sector in Pakistan, the government was facing a bigger challenge.

“Unfortunately, we ignored our health sector in the past, but we have to improve it not for Covid-19 but even after it to provide better health facilities to the people, especially those living in remote areas,” he added.

The prime minister said that earlier the government had started a tele-education programme in which students were being taught in special class through the state-run PTV and now it launched the tele-health programme to register doctors and other health practitioners, especially lady doctors, to give health advices to those living in the far-flung areas where doctors were not available.

“More and more doctors should get themselves registered with the tele-health programme to provide medical facilities to the people in hilly and remote areas through technology. With the passage of time, the number of coronavirus cases will rise in the country and there will be a need to have more doctors to combat the deadly virus,” he added.

According to the health ministry, Pakistan is the first country to have launched free of cost Covid-19 tele-health service. The service, launched by Digital Pakistan and the Ministry of National Health Services, will connect volunteer doctors with the citizens who may have symptoms and need guidance from professional healthcare providers.

“For our 210 million populations, there are roughly less than 150,000 doctors. For the common person, they sometimes have to take a whole day out to travel from their village to a city to see a doctor. When the coronavirus crisis happened, the prime minister advised us to use technology to address the problems. We wanted to reduce the burden and risk on our healthcare facilities and our doctors,” said Tania Aidrus, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Digital Pakistan, during the launching ceremony.

“Keeping this situation in mind, we built our solution with WhatsApp so Pakistanis would not have to learn a new app or website. They can simply message the WhatsApp number and receive a call from the doctor,” she explained.

SAMP on Health Dr Zafar Mirza said doctors and healthcare professionals on the frontlines were doing and had already done so much. “One outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic is the need to scale up digital health solutions. This tele-health portal allows those doctors who are at home, or overseas Pakistani health professionals to come to their support and lessen the burden,” he added.

Meanwhile, 2,198 new cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths were reported during the last 24 hours, taking the national tally of cases to 47,259 and deaths to 1,009. As many as 344 patients are in critical condition, while 10,731 patients have been admitted to 726 hospitals across the country.

Meeting

Meanwhile, Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Prime Minister Imran Khan and discussed with the latter matters pertaining to the internal security, current situation vis-à-vis Covid-19 pandemic, relief efforts and the overall regional situation, said a press release issued by the Prime Minister Office.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar and ISI Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed were present during the meeting. It was quite unusual that SAPM on Accountability Shahzad Akbar also joined the meeting.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1558649/pm-makes-a-strong-case-for-debt-relief-at-wef