KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association have strongly criticised the Sindh government for allowing religious processions taken out on Friday without restricting the public to ensure compliance with SOPs and described the act as ‘a dangerous mistake’.

They also feared that now it would be tough for the government to ensure compliance with SOPs by different segments of society as the government itself had shown no regard to these principles.

“It is shocking and disappointing to see that Sindh government had allowed religious processions in some cities in complete disregard to the Standard Operating Procedures. This dangerous mistake would have serious implications that would be evident in a week or so,” warned Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, general secretary of the PMA-Karachi.

He also referred to the social media campaign by certain religious segments which were provoking the general public and arguing that since the government itself had violated the agreement it had made with religious scholars, now it’s very much justified and a religious duty to hold prayers in mosques in large numbers.

“What happened on Friday was a gross violation of public health principles in the presence of Covid-19 pandemic. The government would be responsible for illness and unnecessary deaths caused by these processions. No sensible country in the world will allow this kind of gatherings that would endanger life of citizens,” he said, adding that the ultimate sufferers would be people.

In a press statement, Pima said the doctors’ fraternity was extremely concerned over the way processions of Youm-i-Ali were taken out against the repeated warnings from all doctors’ organisations in the country.

“No SOPs were followed and there was blatant disregard for social distancing. This has put at risk not only the health of the people participating in the processions, but also the community in large. There is now a serious danger of exponential spread of Covid-19.

“We fear that after this event, it will obviously be impossible to compel any group to stick to SOPs.”

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2020