MANSEHRA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl district president Mufti Kifayatullah has rejected restrictions on attendance in mosques and asked the government to withdraw them to facilitate worshippers.

“We need both precautionary measures and prayers for the elimination of Covid-19,” Mr Kifayatullah told reporters here on Wednesday.

Accompanied by a group of prayer leaders, the JUI-F leader said his party was fully cooperating with the government in efforts to contain coronavirus but it couldn’t allow restrictions on attendance in mosques.

The JUI-F leader said the government shouldn’t spread panic among people over the outbreak of coronavirus.

Kifayatullah asks govt not to spread panic over outbreak of coronavirus

Without naming names, he demanded action against the federal cabinet’s ministers, who, he said, allowed the return of pilgrims from Iran without screening for coronavirus.

Mr Kifayatullah said if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could seek apology from his nation over the people’s problems caused by lockdown, why Prime Minister Imran Khan couldn’t do so by admitting his government’s failure to screen pilgrims on homecoming from Iran.

He said the government should abandon its plans to form a special volunteer force to help the poor during the coronavirus lockdown.

The JUI-F leader also demanded of the government to increase the coronavirus relief package’s amount from Rs3,000 to Rs15,000 for unemployed daily-wage employees.

HUNGER FEARED: A civil society organisation, Islahi Rasoom, has demanded of the government to relax the coronavirus lockdown and allow business without delay.

“Businesspersons and daily-wage employees should be allowed to resume work as we fear more deaths from hunger than coronavirus,” Islah-i-Rasoom president Mukhtar Ahmad Swati told reporters here on Wednesday.

He said it was encouraging to see the government allow the resumption of more and more businesses.

Mr Swati said the well-off people should help the needy people, especially women.

He said the government’s economic package would cover a small segment of population, so its scope and financial assistance should be increased. -

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2020