Federal Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Minister Noor-ul-Haq Qadri has said that to limit the spread of the coronavirus, by and large the mosques in Pakistan are following the government's SOPs and 'namazis' are adopting precautionary measures during their visit to mosques.
He expressed these view during an Aaj TV programme, Pur Azaam Pakistan, which was hosted by leading actress Reema Khan here on Wednesday. He was joined by Mufti Raghib Naeemi, a religious scholar, and Syed Ayaz Shah, Director Public Relations and External Affairs at Jamiq-tur-Rasheed. They discussed the positive and supportive role of Ulema in the national crisis.
The Minister further said that both the Federal and provincial governments are monitoring the situation and so far very few complaints relating to SOPs violation have been received.
He said that before the start of the Ramazan, the government feared that large religious congregation in mosques during the holy month might lead to the spread of the virus. "We had two options, either forcefully stop people from going to the mosques and pressurise Ulema to accept the government decision to close the mosques or allow mosques to remain open," he added.
He disclosed that Prime Minister Imran Khan was against the idea of using force on the 'namazis' and forceful closure of mosques. Thus, he said, after consulting with all the stakeholders, including leading Ulema of the country, the government formulated SOPs and precautionary measures for both the mosques managements and namazis to adopt.
"After several meetings with between the leading Ulema and the President and Governors, a 20 point agreement was reached, under which congregational prayers were allowed in mosques with certain conditions. However, the government has the right to take an action if any of the SOPs are violated or fears spread of the virus," he added.
He commended the positive role of the Ulema in the current crisis and said that they are spreading a meaningful message on the virus and urging the people to adopt all precautionary measures in order to limit the spread of the disease.
"Our religion teaches us to seek forgiveness and give charity, but it also teaches us to protect ourselves from any harm, and thus we all should guard ourselves from the virus by maintaining social distancing and staying home as much as possible," he added.
To a question, he said that the government has launched a social welfare programme, Ehsaas Programme, to financially help people facing hardship during the Covid-19 crisis. However, he said, the government is still facing difficulty in reaching all the needy people and thus he urged all section of the society should play their role by helping the people around them.
On the occasion, Mufti Raghib Naeemi said, "Corona is a virus and will infect everyone, irrespective of colour, caste and religion; we all are in danger. Hence, we should not blame anyone for the spread of the disease but ourselves. If we do not adopt precautionary measures then we will be exposing ourselves to the virus, hence, we all should show responsible behaviour by following all the SOPs during a visit to the mosque and old and children should stay home," he added.
He observed that the people were not taking the virus seriously and were not maintaining social distance or taking other measures seriously, which can lead to the wide-scale spread of the coronavirus. He also pointed out that the agreement between the government and Ulema and consequently opening of mosques has also misspelled a strong impression in the people that international powers are conspiring to close down the mosques.
To a question, he said that both the government and Ulema are on the same page and only after reaching a consensus the agreement was finalised.
Syed Ayaz Shah said that the people should not listen to the conspiracy theories related to the spread of the virus. "We should examine the ground reality, which is over 200 countries are infected by the virus and thus it proves that we all are vulnerable to the disease," he added.
Comments
Comments are closed.