It seems the lockdown has completely locked down the domestic auto industry as not a single locally-manufactured car was sold during the month of April.

According to 24NewsHD TV channel, the industry has been completely crippled by the lockdown as the car manufacturers had sold 19,363 vehicles in April 2019 against the latest figures of zero for the month in the current year.

The Pakistan Automobile Manufacturers Association says the trend is a result of the lockdown that was imposed in mid-March.

And it is not only the manufacturing plants that are closed as all the dealers too have to shut their businesses in the prevailing situation.

But it would be wrong to solely blame the coronavirus-induced lockdown for the overall miserable state of affairs. It is because of the fact that a 52 percent reduction in car sales has been witnessed during the first 10 months of the financial year 2019-20 when compared with the corresponding period in 2018-19.

In the July-April period of 2018-19, 204,000 cars were sold against the dismal figures of 97,664 for July-April 2019-20.

Much before the coronavirus pandemic, the industry has been badly affected by the rupee depreciation and the resultant increase in cost which automatically forced the manufacturers to transfer this to the buyers. Hence, less number of vehicles are being sold since the government decided to go for devaluation.