"I will not criticise Imran Khan. He is our prime minister. ... I expect him to lead the nation from the front," says no one but the chairman of an opposition party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who has always described the incumbent prime minister as a "selected PM". Addressing a press conference in Karachi, he said, "we all have to fight the virus and stand united in these critical times. We must stop criticism, blame and point scoring." Bilawal's call to stand up to the ravaging plague of coronavirus as a united polity comes in the wake of recurring blame game as to who didn't do what he should have done to fight back the curse. He also announced postponement of commemoration of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's death anniversary next month. The PPP chairman's decision to close ranks with federal government in putting up a united front against the deadly virus comes on the heels of a consensus edict issued by the religious scholars. And also, in the meanwhile, the prime minister has decided to form a joint parliamentary committee of treasury and opposition members to fight the pandemic. As compared to other countries, including some who have far better healthcare tools than we have, Pakistan seems to have arrived just at the threshold of coronavirus minefield.
The days ahead are challenging. But if history is any evidence, the Pakistanis, as a nation, always unite in the face of common dangers. In the two wars with India, all the Pakistanis closed their ranks and stood as a hard rock against the enemy. The same happened in 2005 when an earthquake of apocalyptic dimensions struck the upper regions of Pakistan. And the Pakistanis were equally united in receiving three million Afghan refugees with open arms and warm hearts in the wake of Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This coronavirus invasion also seems to be reviving the same spirit of national unity.
Now the ball is in the government's court; it should play it by responding to Bilawal's call by meeting leadership of political opposition and seek their cooperation. We all know that China has successfully turned the tables on the pandemic. There was no hue and cry against lockdown of millions of people in the infected region. "Thanks to the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government at all levels, with the unremitting efforts and sacrifices of people across the country, China's epidemic situation has improved to a large extent and the peak of the epidemic in China is over," says Ambassador Yao Jing in a recent op-ed in a national daily. That said, Chairman Bilawal Bhutto's call is no cry in the wilderness; it is potentially a trend-setter. Let political parties remain loyal to their ideological positions on various national and international issues, but what he said cannot be set aside.