PM Imran calls for global response to COVID-19.

Islamabad -- Prime Minister Imran Khan has stressed that coronavirus pandemic is a global problem and all the countries affected by it must adopt a joint strategy to address it.

Addressing the World Economic Forums Covid Action Platform, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the situation in developed and developing countries is radically different as the spread of Covid-19 was not as rapid in developing nations such as Pakistan and India as it was in Western countries but on the other hand, number of cases is still increasing and developing countries are yet to hit the peak of coronavirus cases.

PM Imran said that the developing countries had to face the twin challenge of stemming the growth of the virus using lockdowns and consequently, mitigating the economic effects of the lockdown on the common people.

He explained that Pakistan has 25 million workers who are daily wagers or get paid weekly or are self employed, which means that any extended lockdown will result in 25 million unemployed people, possibly affecting 25 million households. In total, 120-150 million people have been directly affected by the lockdown and face stark poverty and starvation, he added.

To counter this, he said that the government came up with a cash transfer program which helped 15 million families cope with the lockdown. He noted however that this was only a short term solution so therefore, despite the rising number of cases, the government has...