Prime Minister Imran Khan said that millions would have starved if the government had not lifted the lockdown meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"In Pakistan, we have 25 million workers who are either daily wagers or are self-employed, and these are 25 million families [...] I'd say it has affected 120-150 million in total.

"These people are facing stark poverty, and unless these people work, they will starve. So what we did was, and I'm proud of my government for this, was that we started a cash disbursement programme."

However, this was only a short term solution, which is why we decided to ease the lockdown, he said. "There's no way the government can give out handouts to feed people for that long."