I have been advocating for a
lockdown and medical emergency since 27 February. The government is confused
and till now those sitting in power are confused even on the definition of a
lockdown; which is a complete lockdown in the rest of the world which is called
a smart lockdown. For God’s sake, have the full lockdown with special emergency
laws to have an effectively controlled lockdown. My consistent views have been
endorsed today by Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and World Health
Organisation urging the Pakistan government and state institutions to enforce
complete lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country. The Federal
and provincial govts are using different implementations of lockdown from a
smart lock down to a partial lockdown. However, I have previously stated that
there is only one form of lockdown which basically is imposed on the basis of
emergency directions which prevents the public from leaving a certain area.
The commanding authority has to
be the state which can impose emergency and order the lockdown to make it fully
legal. This could be used for implementing law and order to prevent
interactions within the public to stop the spread of epidemic or pandemic. You
might have noticed that many countries have recently promulgated laws to deal
this emergency. I conclude that in our case, the government itself is confused
on how to impose a lockdown and many related matters and it has further
confused the common man. No decision of the government can be implemented
unless enforcement of the rule of law is ensured. This pandemic needs to be
stopped and therefore the interaction of potential patients’ needs to be
stopped and generally without testing one cannot identify the presence of
coronavirus in a patient. The Prime Minister and his cabinet are jeopardising
national security when the government itself failed to detect a corona patient
who spent over an hour with the PM and his staff and thereafter, he met other
cabinet members as well. According to WHO if there is one patient in a given
area, then consider 28 persons already infected. Now by this principle, we have
latest figure of 11000 patients all over the country from the given reported
number. Then, as per the protocols of WHO, we have already reached the
statistic of nearly 300000 patients which are consistently infecting others
unknowingly. The government should first define this as an emergency and bring
a law either through the parliament or via ordinance on a lockdown to ensure
the proper lock-in. I will be proposing a legislation on it as well, as this
has to be a different emergency to control this pandemic and to cover various
expects of national security. The main issue is to make our public aware of the
use of the rule of law because in the absence specific legal orders for
lockdown under emergency, the public has no fear of formal arrest and trial as
they are not bothered about the punishment since they know the violation of
lockdown or Section144 will not give them stringent punishment.
During the 2019–20 coronavirus
pandemic, emergency lockdowns have been implemented worldwide including mass
quarantines. The first time in history that lockdown measures were used was
during the plague outbreaks in Italy over the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries and
were applied in full force during the plague in Florence in 1630-31. The
measures taken against COVID-19 today are parallel to the ones taken by health
authorities in Italy 400 years ago. The plague outbreaks in Italy were seasonal
that began in spring till summer and started to diminish in winter. It is
unfortunate that this pandemic is not weather dependent and nobody has a clue
as to how long it will haunt us and how it is going to change the world order.
Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) says “When you hear that [a plague] is in a land, do not go to it and if it occurs in a land that you are already in, then do not leave it, fleeing from it.” This is what we need today to follow strictly as this saying of our Holy Prophet is the only way across the world to combat this pandemic.
It is unfortunate that this
deadly disease is attacking us and its prey is a large part of the population.
We have two choices; either we allow this virus to attack us or we build an
iron curtain to stop this disease from infecting us, which would be the best
way to protect ourselves and our loved ones as an entire nation. A friendly
lockdown can be defined as defence against these invisible attackers. There
should either be a complete lockdown with well-defined laws of emergency for
national security, or there needs to be a friendly lockdown where individuals
isolate themselves from society with their own self-controlled laws and day to
day self-handling. They can be their own supervisors to avoid arrest or
punishment. Can anybody define what a “smart lockdown” is? I call it “less than
half a lockdown” since it does not meet the “lockdown protocols” set by the
WHO.
In normal days, time drives you,
while during a friendly lockdown you may drive time your way. The question is
how to drive time and keep stress away, bringing happiness by managing your
time in your own way with your dear ones restricted within your own four walls.
Take this as God-given opportunity to spend more time with your loved ones. I
propose a few tips to follow to kill your time in a qualitative way. Start your
day by first calling your worst enemy and then engage them in friendly
conversation simply with the excuse that we have been fighting and have
differences but let us bury all grudges, as we never know who will be the next
victim. Arrange some flowers or some sweets and send them as a friendly
gesture. After that, call your relatives who are abroad and inquire about their
health and recall all the good moments you spent together. In another context,
the lockdown has also given people a chance to reunite with their families,
spend time together and create happy moments with each other which was not
really possible to do in their normal routines. If the family is with you, then
chalk out your time your way to cherish these moments with them. You can also
start playing indoor games with your family by getting all the tech-savvy kids
of your family involved in physical games and activities.
You can also cook food for your
family; even if it is burnt or tasteless, it will still be fun. Use this time
to reorganise yourself and revert to your God who is merciful and gracious.
Start saying prayers and see the tafseer (meaning) of the Quran and trust me
you will have lot of peace of mind. Start writing your memories which you had
with your parents, which will be a great present to your children and your
grandchildren. Get Netflix or YouTube and watch some historic or other
interesting movies of your choice. Read books online as you have technology at
your disposal even when everything else is locked down. My own life and career
remained very busy and I have learnt that solitude is one of the greatest gifts
from Allah which gives you a chance to think and concentrate on certain issues
and plans. I have always done my due diligence by examining multiple angles of
various encountering issues.
Churchill was asked as to what
was the key to his success was and he stated, “Come what may, I give half an
hour a day to myself just to sit alone, have my thoughts processed to
strategise my future plans.” I have locked down myself having all the normal
political activities carried out through Skype, Zoom and WhatsApp. I have also
written my new book on coronavirus vs national security during this lockdown.
We have to learn as to how best can we use this period. Dear all, let us pray
and hope that we get rid of this deadly virus soon.
The Article was published in The Nation on April 25, 2020, Link to the original article is https://nation.com.pk/25-Apr-2020/lockdown-versus-our-national-security
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