Sindh Minister for Information, Local Government, Housing &Town Planning, Religious Affairs, Forest and Wildlife Syed NasirHussain Shah has said that no official Iftar party will be held during Ramazan due to Coronavirus outbreak.
The minister said that politicians belonging to Pakistan People’s Party would also not arrange for any Iftar party during Ramazan this year. He said that the entire focus of the Sindh government during this Ramazan would be on protecting the lives of the people from the Coronavirus pandemic.
Nasir Shah said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has instructed that the politicians who used to give Iftar parties should spend the same money on purchasing ration and distribute it among the people who had been affected severely by the lock down. The Minister said that after the directives of the PPP Chairman, Sindh chief minister had also confirmed that the no Iftar party would be held at official level this year.
He said that all the Ministers of the Sindh government as well as the members of PPP in the provincial assembly would distribute rations to the people in their respective constituencies during RamaZan and would help the people affected by the lock down.
Commenting on closure of Mosques and restriction on Taraweehcongregations, Nasir Shah said that it was wrong to give the impression that if the Sindh government talked of closing mosques, it meant that the Coronavirus had been spreading from the mosques.
He said that this was not the case at all, adding that, the government was requesting the Ulema to close the mosques and ask the people to offer prayers at home during this Ramazan as a precautionary measure. He said that because medical experts believed that there was a high risk of spreading of the Coronavirus wherever there was a gathering, therefore, religious scholars were repeatedly being requested by the Sindh government to take precautionary measures and ask the people to offer prayers at home.
“We have the realization that it is very difficult for us create a consensus in this regard, especially when it is the month of Ramadan, but we still humbly request our respected clerics and religious scholars to follow the government’s health advisory and tell the people to offer prayers at home during this Ramadan,” he said.
He hoped that just as the religious scholars had helped the Sindh government before Ramazan and told people to offer their prayers at home, including the Friday prayers, they would help us again during this holy month of Ramazan too.
