Daily wagers wait for govt bailout

It’s been just eight days into the lockdown and I have already exhausted my savings in groceries, said Tauqeer Ali, who works as a captain for a ride-hailing service. His company sent him a message claiming to offer rations but he has been just waiting ever since it popped up on his screen.
The Sindh government said on April 23 that the province will go into lockdown and only personnel of security, essential medical services would be allowed to continue work, while markets, save pharmacies, grocery and dairy shops, will be shut.
Ali and others like him acknowledged the need for the lockdown but had one principal grievance: how will he feed his family? “If I were still associated with my formal employment,” he said, “I would still get paid but now I’m just a daily wager with no job security.”
The Sindh government said on Sunday that it was working on a mechanism to hand out cash instalments to needy people through mobile banking. It was working to make it transparent through a mobile application and with the assistance of the National Database and Registration Authority, Federal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan would classify needy people. There have been no developments since.
A key member of the Sindh cabinet, education minister Saeed Ghani confirmed that the app will be operational today, Thursday. Ghani, who himself fell prey to Covid-19 and has recovered, said they could not say how long it would take to contain the virus. It could be weeks, months, or even six months. “We understand the extraordinary circumstances our poor and labour class have to go through,” he said, however, these were extraordinary times.
Data compiled with this application can help the government “for six months to come to keep aiding those hit hardest.”
The Federal Finance Ministry has also announced a package for those hit economically by corona. Finance Adviser Abdul Hafeez Shaikh laid out a package of over Rs1.25 trillion as a stimulus. For the workers who lose their jobs, he said, the federal government has designed a package of Rs200 billion. “We will outsource it to business communities and provincial committees to find and verify and help them.”
The federal ministry has been handing out financial aid to more than five million people (the Benazir Income Support Program) and will add seven million more people to that list which will cost the national exchequer around Rs150 billion.

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