THE Supreme Court’s words have undoubtedly gladdened the hearts of many chafing at the official restrictions on commercial activities in the country at present. On Monday, the apex court bench, hearing the suo motu case pertaining to the authorities’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic, set aside the federal government’s decision to close shops, markets and businesses on Saturdays and Sundays. “People of my country are poor and they need to earn their bread and butter on a daily basis,” said Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed. The court also ordered the provincial governments to reopen all malls but to ensure the SOPs are strictly observed. Alongside this, the bench expressed concern that the amount being spent on fighting the pandemic could not be justified because Pakistan is not “seriously affected” by it.

There will be those in government who will argue, if behind closed doors, that this is yet another instance of judicial overreach. However, the federal and provincial authorities cannot absolve themselves of creating a situation where the Supreme Court may have believed an intervention on its part was called for. Led by the centre, the once-in-a-century pandemic should have seen them set aside their political differences, reach out across the aisle and hammer out a coherent administrative response based on scientific expertise and best practices in public health policy. It was not essential that each part of the federation be in lockstep with each other throughout, but it was necessary to have a unified, well-reasoned narrative with a consensus on priorities. Instead, there has been acrimonious point-scoring and undermining of each other’s strategy, further fuelling conspiracy theories and public discontent. A populist response has now come from the bench, and there are legitimate fears it could open the floodgates for the infection to spread.

The SOPs are already being followed more in the breach, and while the fatality rate in Pakistan has not been increasing precipitously, the infection rate is alarming. Covid-19 has not even peaked in this country, let alone arrived at the stage where there is a ‘flattening of the curve’. We could be in for a harrowing time ahead, an apocalyptic scenario where patients in need of medical intervention would be turned away from packed-to-capacity hospitals. This is no time to downplay the risk. It should also be said that the executive must have space to make decisions, sometimes difficult and unpopular ones, based on hard-headed realism. Moreover, notwithstanding the political leadership’s discordant response, there is a National Command and Operations Centre specifically set up to bring together the federal and provincial governments and the military leadership on one platform to deal with Covid-19. Excessive judicial activism has sometimes cost Pakistan dearly, such as when the Steel Mills privatisation was overturned or the Reko Diq agreement declared null and void. One hopes that history is not going to repeat itself.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2020