'It is a global pandemic with chances of a second strike in a few months'.

Byline: Shazia Hasan

KARACHI -- The Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences organised a lecture on 'Covid-19 pandemic: a general view from international and national perspective' by Dr Riaz Shaikh, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology in which he discussed the current situation of the prevailing crisis of Covid-19 from its political, economic and social aspects that was streamed live on Facebook on Saturday.

Dr Shaikh stressed the importance of realising the crisis with a million affected and 300,000 casualties in 198 countries. 'It is a global pandemic with chances of a second strike in a few months,' he said while criticising Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar's remarks of more people dying in accidents than of the virus. 'It is very alarming. It also makes one wonder about the government's seriousness in handling the pandemic,' he added.

Turning to history, he pointed out that after the emergence of the neo-liberal economy, things were not looking good. And after the break-up of the USSR, a unipolar world emerged where only the new political and economic order under the capitalist influence will be followed.

He mentioned the works of Francis Fukuyama, in particular End of History in which he talks about no more conflict and about a liberal world with a liberal democracy. He also mentioned Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations and the problem not being of the classes but on the basis of civilisation, which is the liberal and democratic versus the conservative and fundamentalists.

'Along with this, from the mid-1980s till today, poverty is on the rise. The differences between the haves and the haves-not have become more sharp and evident,' he said, while also mentioning Prof Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century where the scholar has proven with data to support his argument these differences will stand out even more and turn drastic in the coming days. 'Now the size of the middle class has increased in both the developed and developing countries,'he said. 'In 2008, various financial crises emerged in USA from where started the 'Occupy Wall Street Movement' and 'We Are the 99%' protests,' he said.

Also mentioning the works of Prof Antonio Negri of Italy, he had said he believed that liberal democracy would bring peace to the world. 'But instead of peace, we saw the worse kind of military interventions globally in...

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