'A tale of two horses'

LETTER: This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed "A tale of two horses" carried by the newspaper on Saturday. The writer, Syed Bakhtiar Kazmi, deserves praise for arguing that we are probably the only Islamic nation which observed full party time during Eid celebrations; did we think Corona would be on a holiday too? We seem to be riding two horses called Fear and Ignorance at the same time, rapidly shuffling between lockdown and no lockdown. There are rumours that we will be moving towards a full lockdown again in the coming week because the numbers are going up rapidly. That coronavirus or Covid-19 is a grim reality is a fact. People have thrown caution to the wind, action in a completely reckless manner. The ease in lockdown has caused a huge spike in coronavirus positive cases and deaths. The number of confirmed cases is now nearing the 70,000 mark. How ironic it is that while the government has made wearing of facemasks at crowded places mandatory, it has not stipulated any punitive action against the violators of SOPs.