PAKISTAN has lost almost 20 working days, or the equivalent of between 120-160 working hours, owing to the partial lockdown in major cities to avoid the proliferation of coronavirus.

The partial lockdown of the cities will certainly slow down economic activities and cause losses of billions of rupees to the nation. The federal and provincial governments should constitute a committee to formulate ways on how to recoup the lost time.

In my opinion this can be done by working six days a week or by increasing the number of working hours in a day after the pandemic is over. We have very limited time for planning this measure because the holy month of Ramazan is less than a month away wherein working hours are reduced.

The good thing is that summer is also nearly upon us, wherein we can increase the number of working hours. Please also look into the study hours of schools, colleges and universities as students have lost precious time.

The proposed body should come up with workable ideas to implement. Further, the idea of having a five-day working week was introduced as a part of energy-saving measures. This should also be reviewed in view of the prevailing satisfactory power supply.

Mohsin Abbas

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2020