The Politics of Pakistan's COVID-19 Response: A State-in-Society Approach

IF 1.4 4区社会学 Q1 AREA STUDIES

Pacific Affairs Pub Date : 2022-12-01 DOI:10.5509/2022954731

A. Qureshi

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

This paper takes a "state-in society" approach to understand the evolution of Pakistan's COVID-19 response, which was laid claim to and contested by multiple agencies within and adjacent to the state, and by multiple levels of government. The capacity of the health system of Pakistan was already overstretched by the needs of its population but in recent years it has been hamstrung by ongoing protests by the medical community concerning the privatisation of public sector hospitals, to which were added protests over the lack of PPE in the public sector. These resulted in frequent closures of out-patient departments at major hospitals. When the government announced a relief package to mitigate effects of COVID, traders and big businesses lobbied the government to obtain the lion's share in the form of concessions such as loan deferments and tax refunds. The unconditional cash grants programme was hyped about by the government but the cash for the poor could not be disbursed effectively due to the absence of local governments at the grass-root level. As an appropriate response to the pandemic, especially in relation to the lockdown policies, was contested and negotiated among multiple actors in the Pakistani state and society, the Pakistan military emerged as a dominant force in this "field of power". In this paper, I present an account of Pakistan's response to COVID-19 as it evolved in 2020 and discuss the implications of this response for democratic culture in Pakistan.

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巴基斯坦应对新冠肺炎的政治：社会中的国家方法

本文采用“国家在社会中”的方法来理解巴基斯坦新冠肺炎应对措施的演变，该应对措施受到了国家内部和邻近多个机构以及各级政府的要求和质疑。巴基斯坦卫生系统的能力已经因其人口的需求而不堪重负，但近年来，由于医学界对公共部门医院私有化的持续抗议，以及对公共部门缺乏个人防护装备的抗议，该系统受到了阻碍。这导致各大医院的门诊部经常关闭。当政府宣布一项缓解新冠肺炎影响的救助计划时，贸易商和大企业游说政府，以延期贷款和退税等优惠的形式获得最大份额。政府大肆宣扬无条件现金补助计划，但由于缺乏基层地方政府，穷人的现金无法有效支付。随着对疫情的适当应对，特别是与封锁政策有关的应对措施，在巴基斯坦国家和社会的多个行动者之间展开了争论和谈判，巴基斯坦军方成为了这一“权力领域”的主导力量。在这篇论文中，我介绍了2020年巴基斯坦对新冠肺炎的应对，并讨论了这种应对对巴基斯坦民主文化的影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Pacific Affairs AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

1.60

自引率

12.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Pacific Affairs has, over the years, celebrated and fostered a community of scholars and people active in the life of Asia and the Pacific. It has published scholarly articles of contemporary significance on Asia and the Pacific since 1928. Its initial incarnation from 1926 to 1928 was as a newsletter for the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR), but since May 1928, it has been published continuously as a quarterly under the same name. The IPR was a collaborative organization established in 1925 by leaders from several YMCA branches in the Asia Pacific, to “study the conditions of the Pacific people with a view to the improvement of their mutual relations.”