The decision is being taken because the country’s large number of poor people and labourers cannot afford to live under lockdown any more, he said on Thursday.
“We’re deciding that we are ending this lockdown now,” Khan said in a televised address. “We know that we’re doing it at a time when our curve is going up … but it is not edging up as we were expecting.”
Khan called on the public to continue following social distancing guidelines as businesses start to reopen in phases, saying another lockdown would be imposed if cases spiked again.
“We need to discipline ourselves,” said Khan in a televised address announcing the easing of the lockdown would begin on Saturday.
“We can’t send the police to make raids. In an independent society this doesn’t happen.”
Schools will remain closed until mid-July, while there were no plans to restart public transportation or domestic flights just yet.
The easing of the lockdown comes with many across the country already openly flouting its restrictions and gathering in public, especially during the evenings as people celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.
Last month, authorities buckled under pressure from religious groups ahead of Ramadan and allowed mosques to hold daily prayers and evening congregations after clerics promised to instruct religious leaders to clean their facilities regularly.
Thousands of shoppers have also thronged popular markets, including many without wearing protective gear, to buy food for the evening iftar meal that celebrates the end of each day’s fasting.
Pakistan, which has undergone a five-week lockdown, has reported 24,073 COVID-19 cases with 564 deaths, and recorded its highest single-day increase of 1,523 cases on Thursday.
