ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Supreme Court has ordered the government to open all the shopping malls across the country. “People will die of hunger even if they survive COVID-19 if the business activities are not resumed in the country,” said Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed. His remarks came as he headed a five-member bench of the Supreme Court to hear the suo moto case regarding measures taken by the government to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court was hearing a suo moto case regarding measures taken against the virus outbreak.
The bench was headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed while Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed were also on the bench.
Today, the court also ordered the reopening of shopping malls across the country.
During the hearing today, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed remarked that if the shops are shut down then shopkeepers will ‘die of hunger rather than the coronavirus’.
CJP Ahmed said that in Karachi, except for five big malls every market has resumed operations.
Upon which, Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shallwani said that a few markets were sealed for not following the Standard Operating Procedures laid out by the government.
According to the Health Ministry, Pakistan has so far reported 42,125 cases, the second worst-hit country in the South Asia after India.
The deaths number in the country rose to 903 as 30 more people lost their lives over the past 24 hours. As many as 11,922 people have successfully recovered and discharged from the hospitals.
