Smart lockdown to save 80pc Pakistani informal labor from famine: PM Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan addressing Wednesday a Pakistan Strategy Dialogue session organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) said the national economy has embarked on the right track with stability, ARY News reported.

The PM said that his government while trying to curb the Covid spread, ensured people don’t fall victim to famine and guaranteed financial aids to daily wagers whose sustenance was in question amid the lockdown.

The dialogue today was held via a video link wherein PM Imran Khan underlined Pakistan’s fight with the novel coronavirus which he said was different than in other countries in terms of smart lockdown steps taken to give space for economic subsistence of lower-income-class people and in terms of results and the first pandemic wave was controlled.

About 80 per cent of the Pakistani labor class belongs to informal sectors that is why we preferred smart lockdown over across-the-board lockdown like in other countries to address the economic woes of our informal workforce, he said.

He said to offset pandemic-led financial crisis and panic, the country has laid open the construction sector amid Covid outbreak for the whole value chain relevant to the sector to revive while on the other hand, he added, the government handed out cash aids to about 15 million people of the country.

Addressing the WEF session on Pakistan, he noted that his rule has steered the economy on the right direction referring to economic upturns, and added the economy is now stable as after 17 years the Current Account has turned green.