ISLAMABAD            -            The mosques in Islamabad have been witnessing a huge number of worshippers without any precautionary measures after the government in consultation with leading religious clerics of the country hailing from different schools of thought conditionally removed the sanction from religious gatherings at mosques.

In the big mosques of Islamabad including Red Mosque and Faisal Mosque, the number of people arriving for prayer surged dramatically after the government and religious clerics of Pakistan agreed to lift the ban on limited gatherings at mosques.

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of the Islamabad including CkahShehzad, Tamari, and ChattaBakhtawar, it was witnessed that most of the mosques were heavily crowded on common days and there was neither sanitizer nor the people were adopting the social distancing and the carpets of the mosques were also not folded which has raised questions over the attitude of masses towards the relief in lockdown and gatherings.

Besides the lack of many precautionary measures, the masses including the clerics who were leading the prayers seemed carless in educating the people regarding following the directives of the government during prayer.

President of Pakistan ArifAlvi in his meeting with the ulemas on April 18 had agreed upon 20-point agenda regarding the precautionary measures to be observed during the gatherings at mosques around the country.

The conditional permission was granted by the government after the religious segments of the country had warned the government of resistance and protest in case of further extension of the ban on gatherings at mosques.

But after they agreed on 20 points, many questions were raised whether the common people will follow the precautionary measures or not. However, many experts have showed their reservations over the relief in lockdown and had termed it as a decision taken under pressure because according to experts Pakistan is yet to reach the peak of COVID-19.

It is important to mention that all the religious clerics including MaulanaFazlRehman, Senator SirajUlHaq, Mufti MuneebRehman, and TahirAshrafi have decided that they will perform prayer at home but these were the clerics who were mounting pressure on the government to remove the ban from religious gatherings.

Meanwhile, all these clerics had refused to ask the masses to perform prayer at home after the government had asked them to convince them people to not to come to mosques. All these clerics had urged the government that it was the duty of the government to restrain people from coming to mosques.