SC's suo motu notice

In a first for the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Gulzar Ahmed-led Supreme Court (SC), suo motu notice was taken of the federal and provincial governments' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic after reports sought from these governments on the issue failed to satisfy the apex court. During the hearing of the case on April 13, 2020, the SC assailed the federal and Sindh governments for lacking a clear vision and warned of looming chaos and anarchy if extreme lockdowns were implemented without a proper backup plan to meet people's needs. The court observed that a crisis of this magnitude demanded consensus and coordination at a national level, but here the federal and provincial governments appear to be going in different directions and the country lacked a unifying national leadership. The Sindh government was directed to provide details in a comprehensive report on how it had distributed Rs 8 billion (a figure that the Sindh government has expressed ignorance as to its origin) as relief among the people of Sindh. The Punjab government too attracted the attention of the SC when it overturned the former's ban on inter-provincial movement as against the Constitution. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza came close to attracting a directive of the court for his removal on the grounds of incompetence and alleged dirty hands but was saved by the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan's plea that such an order at this juncture would disrupt the ongoing drive against the pandemic. The 'army' of special assistants and advisers that had swelled the size of the federal cabinet to 49 members also attracted the ire of the court given that the cost of maintaining this bloated cabinet in the middle of a dire health and economic crisis, with, in the court's view, many cabinet members allegedly not enjoying a clean past but rather having criminal records and proving incompetent. The court could only see interminable meetings at the top without any evidence of work on the ground. Legislation to overcome the pandemic crisis and parliament, the SC observed, were conspicuous by their absence. Lockdowns were being resorted to without realising the impact or having proper arrangements in place to assist those unable to work and lacking the means to sustain themselves. At the same time, while attention was focused on the coronavirus pandemic, it was not clear what the impact on the health of people with other afflictions had been. The CJP remarked that the government should have taken steps to induct big manufacturers into the production of critically needed medical equipment (e.g., ventilators) and carried out testing free of cost.

While the SC will resume proceedings in this case on April 20, 2020, the issues and questions it has raised reflect general disquiet amongst swathes of public opinion on the handling of arguably the greatest health crisis in living memory. First and foremost, what emerges as a rational course is to resist the temptation to listen to the growing tribe of 'experts' on the coronavirus pandemic, relying instead on real experts in the field such as epidemiologists. Admittedly, even such experts do not as yet have all the answers as far as this particular pandemic is concerned, but at least this course avoids the distraction of speculative or even false prognoses and 'cures'. Then of course, the nettle has to be firmly grasped, without indecisiveness or shilly-shallying, regarding the delicate balance to be maintained between health concerns and the economy. Of course this is not a simple binary, since lives and livelihoods are equally at stake. Too draconian a lockdown by now runs the risk, as the SC has hinted, of hungry and desperate people feeling compelled to defy the government's restrictions, which could produce clashes with, and riots against, the police and other security forces deployed for this purpose. Criticism of the federal and provincial governments for a late and inadequately thought through response (with the Sindh government being lauded for the best performance so far) no longer is the need of the day. What is required is pulling all governments, federal and provincial, and political and social forces together to combat the pandemic with the best possible expert advice available.