Govt in a fix over economy, contagion.

Byline: Mansoor Malik

LAHORE -- The Punjab government is finding itself in a catch-22 situation as it feels pushed to gradually open businesses to keep the wheel of the economy moving but its backlash in terms of surge in coronavirus infections and deaths is even more drastic.

A marathon meeting of the Cabinet Committee to Combat Coronavirus Threat at chief minister's secretariat on Thursday reviewed the opening of markets and shopping malls [ahead of Eid] and came up with a projected finding that the coronavirus-positive patients might increase by 20 times, a source [in the meeting] told Dawn.

'When the government decides to open more and more businesses, general public believes that the coronavirus threat has subsided and comes out of houses without even observing basic SOPs,' the source said.

On the other hand, the source said, the government was constantly facing pressure from the restaurant industry as well as businesses at tourist spots including Murree and Galliat as the complete closure had not only put the sector under severe economic stress, rendering a large number of people jobless.

Cabinet body decides to recommend to Centre to open restaurants, resorts; PFA unable to enforce SOPs at 4,500 registered eateries

Feeling the pressure, the meeting chaired by senior minister Abdul Aleem Khan decided to recommend the federal government that the provincial government be allowed to open restaurants with specific SOPs as well as tourist spots in Punjab, including Murree and Galliat. A final decision to the effect will be taken at the meeting of the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC), the source said.

The meeting was informed that there were 4,500 registered restaurants besides unregistered ones in Lahore alone. Explaining the restaurant owners' point of view, the meeting was told that the government had earlier allowed to operationalise take-away and home-delivery services but only around 10 per cent of total consumers used this facility during the past over two months. The meeting was told that only 25pc work force was engaged at restaurants, turning 75pc jobless.

The committee discussed that the restaurants be allowed to entertain customers to [maximum] half of their capacity and bar entry of people above 60 years of age.

Amidst committee members' observations that SOPs had nowhere been observed instead taken for granted, the Punjab Food Authority officials also made it clear that the PFA would not be able to monitor even the...