A helping hand

It is time philanthropists, business tycoons, industrialists and others who have their assets in billions step forward and help those who are in trouble owing to the coronavirus outbreak. Following the country-wide lockdown, mills and factories have been shutdown leading to unemployment on massive scale. In many cases, the sole bread-winners of the families are out of work. In the same way, labourers who live from hand to mouth are also perplexed as finding work during the lockdown is next to impossible. Although the government has announced certain relief packages for the marginalised, there is a lot of slip twixt the cup and the lip, and the government aid will take quite some time to reach the deserving masses. The data collection of the needy and the impoverished is an arduous task for the government. Afterwards, providing ration at their doorsteps is another time consuming task. Nobody knows when will this alarming situation come to an end but one thing is sure: by the time the pandemic had ended, it would have already taken a heavy toll on the lives of the affected people.

History stands witness to the fact that whenever a crisis situation struck the nation, our resilient people rose to the occasion, stood up to the task and came out victorious from every traumatic incident. It is heartening that activist groups are collecting funds to provide relief goods to the poor. Hopefully, activists in every district will take part magnanimously in ameliorating the suffering of the oppressed.

Muhammad Fayyaz Nawrha

Mianwali