Category: Politics

Here is the updated list of areas sealed in Lahore and Karachi in Pakistan. Acoording to the NCOC, hotspots to be sealed in 20 cities across Pakistan have been identified through trace, test and quarantine (TTQ). Potential areas to be sealed in Islamabad: I-8, I-10, Barakahu, Ghauri town, G-6 & G-7.

Punjab government has announced that it will lockdown these areas of Lahore after midnight:

Shahdra
Nistar Ground
Allama Iqbal Town
Lahore Cantt
Walled City
Mazang
Shad Bagh
HarbansPura
Gulberg

Punjab government decides to initiate ‘selective’ lockdown in #Lahore due to high number of Corona cases. List of areas sealed in Rawalpindi, Multan, Jehlum, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, and Wah Cantt is also being prepared. There will also be restrictions in moving out of these cities after midnight and you would need a permit to move around. Only emergency movement would be allowed under special circumstances.

Things are getting worse in Pakistan as far as Corona is concerned. The wave is jumping higher and higher as the cases keep piling up. The non seriousness of PTI government has really made the things worse. The country saw its deadliest day of the outbreak so far, with 110 deaths taking the toll to 2,897. 4,443 new cases took the total tally to 148,921, of which 60% are active.

Lahoris are a weird creature, for them everything is a joke, they are so Jaahil they dont listen and dont care; no other nation is bigger in jahaalet and stupidity than Pakistanis; Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid says #CoronaVirusPakistan. This is the aptitude of a minister.

People are also raising their concerns about this. It would be very difficult for Punjab government to trace the effected areas now because the virus has spread all over districts in Karachi. This action should be taken by federal government in march. But then both are equally incompetent and lazy, and have no clue whats going on. The ministers are taking it so casually that one wonders who they are.

The proposed budget for fiscal year 2020-2021 has been a shock for the Pakistani people who are already down and trodden due to Coronavirus pandemic. Massive job losses, businesses shutdown, rampant rising poverty and financial meltdown are to be seen in every sector of life.

People were expecting some relief from the government before and in the budget. They received none. While the selected is living in posh style in Bani Gala palace and PM house, his ministers have received brand new Lexus protocol vehicles plus various new gadgets like new iphones, ipads, and iwatches for the whole family. They have also received corona stipend of Rs. 10K.

World over, governments are giving job relief package in the aftermath of Corona. Governments even in the developing countries are cutting their own expenditures and providing people some welfare money. This inept and callous government of PTI is totally insensitive to whats required as they have left people on the mercy of time.

This is what happens when you select hand picked opportunists and make them rulers of country. This is what happens when you degrade and throw out a genuine political government. This is what happens when people don’t come out on streets against injustice. This is what happens when things go rough.

TV channels are silent, newspapers are silent, journalists are afraid to name the name; everyone is compromised and scared. Perhaps we deserve this.

C for Corona and C for Cynthia. Out of these two Cs, Pakistanis are more obsessed with white skin of Cynthia. Four people are dying of Corona every hour but people are discussing who took advantage of Cynthia. Cynthia’s Visa is another mystery which has popped up.

Azaz Syed, the Jang journalist has released some screen shots of Cynthia’s Visa which was expired and yet she was staying in Pakistan. According to him she has fallen out of favor of her handlers now as she was unable to convince the masses of her being victim. May be she was trying to make too many people happy at the same time.

In this game jealousy is the burden. You cannot have it from both ends. You cannot keep both establishment and civilian rulers happy. You have to select one. You cannot be a puppet and master at the same time. She thought that she should have it all the way down and up but it seems that now she has ruffled some feathers which were not meant to be.

Cynthia’s visa expired on 2nd March and flights from Pakistan were suspended from 17th March, so she remained in country for 2 weeks illegally as an alien. So this excuse of Corona flight suspension is null and void. Who is releasing her passport and visa copies? If you can pinpoint that person, you will understand the whole game.

The opinion of Pakistani doctors on Covid19 proved to be correct word for word and government proved wrong.The WHO report is nothing less than a charge sheet against the govt. Lockdown and that too the real lockdown (Not nominal just like the prevous one) is the only way out.

I cannot fathom the lethargy of this useless government which is looking at each other was what to do next. Every hour, dozens of people are dying in Pakistan by the hands of Corona pandemic and we don’t see any action from this regime.

Unfortunately doctors are blamed of doing politics on the issue at that time . Pakistan is ranked fourth dangerous country is Asia by a study group of Hong Kong, but Selected says situation is under control. Pakistan is literally become a pariah as everyone knows we are epicenter of corona now. We are sort of like in death circle.

Lockdown Pakistan Now is the hashtag of social media as people are crying out to be saved. Already there is no business, nothing is going on and yet this government is clueless about next step. No foreign trade is happening, economy is frozen and there is no hope of its resurrection anytime soon.

PMLN sources have confirmed that PMLN president and opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif is the latest victim of Coronavirus. He is in self-isolation now and under the supervision of doctors from Sharif Medical Complex in Lahore.

Shahhaz Sharif was worried about his health for sometime as he is a cancer survivor and was reluctant to go to NAB office and was asking them to investigate him virtually but they didnt listen to him. If Shahbaz Sharif dies from corona , this will come back to haunt NAB and FIA big time even if they are not at fault in the hindsight.

But we must hope for the best and pray that Shahbaz Sharif gets recovered as soon as possible. He has done a lot and no one can deny what he has done for Punjab and especially for Lahore. He has changed the face of this city forever. His services in infrastructure, health, development and education are undeniable.

One hopes that he gets well soon and will be among us as quickly as possible.

When I started writing for this blog, way back in 2008 the hottest topic was load-shedding. We have short memories and even shorter tempers so I am not sure if anyone still remembers those sweltering days of June and July when there used to be no power during the day or night.

Things changed during PMLN’s tenure and people got a relief but even that wasn’t enough to save Nawaz Sharif’s fate but that’s another story for another time. All those power plants are now churning out electricity in ample quantity and load-shedding has become a thing of past. There are still outages, dont get me wrong, but not as high as they used to be.

This government is lucky to have received a better power situation and hence they are least worried about energy security of Pakistan. No one is bothered about the causes of the “high cost of electricity” and circular debt as they can print more money and enjoy while it lasts.

It becomes necessary to take a holistic view of the sector to make an informed opinion about its troubles and the potential way forward. But this government is ignorant of any frameworks regarding power and they appears less interested in reinforcing the existing regulatory frameworks.

So I won’t be surprised if we start seeing recurrence of load-shedding in 2020 across Pakistan. With corona raging all around, this is the last thing we need.

Desi ‘maim’, blue eyes, white skin, blonde hair, and glamorous American accent. That’s enough to rattle any Pakistani male let alone the people in power corridors.

When Cynthia first arrived in Pakistan, she very soon took over the Karachi social scene and quickly moved to Islamabad where real power lies. From PPP’s small time politicians, she quickly became apple of the eyes of those who really matter.

Since then she has never looked back. She has admirers in every political party, but she knows where to set her eyes and what the power origins are. Many anchorpersons and journalists have been embarrassed by her in the evening parties of glorious Islamabad.

Not sure what she blogs about, but her official title is a blogger from US who is passionate about Pakistan. A tad bit too passionate one would say as now she is directly becoming a sort of pawn in national politics and targeting the leftover PPP stalwarts who are running for their meager dignities.

Cynthia’s story won’t end here. It will go a long way and when she returns to US, she is going to expose those who matters the most. Cynthia Ritchie book of future or shall we say biography would sell like hot cakes whenever it comes out, and its just a matter of time.

Countries like Pakistan which mainly depend on foreign remittences, foreign aid and foreign loans are the worst affected in post corona world. This pandemic has rattled the roots of most of solid economies across the world, mostly those which are prime aid donors to Pakistan.

Economies are contracting across the globe. This year alone, World Bank has predicted a contraction of 5.2%. This is just an average as this would vary from country to country. For developing and under-developed countries, things will be lots worst. Pakistani markets are largely concentrated in few sectors and there is lots of state meddling to keep it steady. But the sheer number of companies going bankgrupt and drying up of foreign largess, even state won’t be able to prop it up for long.

We are not willing to cut down expenditures, we are not willing to stop amassing military hardware, we are not willing to pay taxes, we are not willing to become self-sustained and as usual are expecting foreign help. That won’t be coming anytime sooner and it will be too little and too late if any comes at all.

Analysts and other financial experts are at loss to count the losses. They are facing an uphill task to measure the impact of the crisis they have likened to a global natural disaster, but the huge size of the impact across so many sectors and countries has made it hard to calculate, and made predictions about any recovery highly uncertain. Downgrades of economies are happening everywhere.

Pakistan’s stock market is already nose-diving and current pauses are just result of state sponsored stimulus. This will eclipse the Great Depression of 1929 as more and more people are falling below the poverty line.

On the surface, things seem pretty tepid and monotonous on Pakistani politics horizon as we are well into 2020. People are in survival mode and just want to get through these rough times.

Confusion is the order of day today where-ever you look. Confusion about Corona’s current status, its vaccines, whether to test or not, price of corona test in Pakistan, jobs, business, media and everything else. The feeling of being clueless is rampant and ubiquitous.

Anyway while Corona rages on all around us, political melodrama continues on. After conquering PMLN and other small time players, the political gods are now after PPP which is already not in a fighting shape. All this Cynthia Richie saga is just part of that game. No one is saying that she is lying or anything, but the timing is striking and those who know Cynthia tell some other story about this timing.

Independent political activity is literally dead in the country with no major political party in sight and leadership either sitting abroad, in jail, or just too scared to come forward. The vacuum is too big and too wide to stay that way. Sooner or later it has to be filled and nature will take its course. My only concern is that common people might have to pay a hefty price for that.