ISLAMABAD-The markets and mosques across Islamabad are getting heavily crowded with no precautionary measures as the government decided to ease lockdown despite a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections.
The increasing number of masses in markets and mosques in the capital not following SOPs has become a headache for the Islamabad administration as majority of people are paying no heed towards the SOPs fixed by the government.
There were some mosques in the city side which to some extent were following the SOPs, but majority of mosques in the outskirts of capital did not follow the precautionary measures. While talking to The Nation, a religious cleric from ChakShahzad said that they have been asking the masses to adopt all the precautionary measures while visiting the mosques but in vain.
He further argued that apparently things are slipping out of the hands of government as it has failed to force to masses to follow the SOPs.
Meanwhile, a man going for offering prayer told The Nation that the local committees in mosques formed by the government had failed to convince the masses to adopt the precautionary measures while visiting the mosques. He stated that both the government and the religious segment of the country had failed to deliver in time of crisis.
Besides mosques, the Islamabad administration is also facing problems in implementing the SOPs in markets as hundreds of people have been witnessed visiting the markets with less or no precautionary measures.
Many big markets including G-7 Markaz, G-8 Markaz, and particularly G-9 Markaz witnessed a huge number of influx on Friday without any visible precautionary measures.
While talking to The Nation, a shopkeeper in G-9 Markaz named Muhammad Bilal said that the government has fixed the SOPs but implementation was yet to happen.
He stated that the administration was asking the shopkeepers to adopt the precautionary measures but paying no heed towards the masses as very huge ratio of them were not following the SOPs.
Islamabad administration has already warned the masses of worst consequences incase of ignoring the SOPs while visiting to mosques and markets.
The move of the federal government to ease the lockdown amid the surge in COVID-19 cases was hailed by the business community of the country, but the opposition parties greatly criticised the move of the government and termed it as a failure of the federal government.