Fawad Chaudhry, Minister of Science and Technology, on Friday said Coronavirus outbreak has spread in Pakistan due to ignorance of the conservative religious class.
He said in a statement that the global outbreak of Coronavirus has spread in Pakistan due to ignorance of the religious community and now they say Coronavirus is a punishment from God and we need to repent, adding that the scholars who have the knowledge and the intellect are the blessings of Allah, but to give an ignorant status of a scholar is destruction.
He said that 66 studies are going on in which 43 are on new vaccines, 16 on new antibiotics and seven are focusing on antibodies.
مولانا فضل الرحمنࣿ کا عوام کو گھروں میں نماز ادا کرنے کا مشورہ انتہائ صایّب ہے، اس وقت مذھبی قیادت سے اسی سنجیدہ رویے کی توقع کی جانی چاہئے، خود کو محدود کرنا ہی اس وقت کروناکی وباء سے نبٹنا ہے، ایک دفعہ پھیلاؤ رک گیا تو یہ وباء اپنی موت آپ ختم ہو جائیگی #coronavirusinpakistan
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) March 27, 2020
He also appreciated the call of JUI-F leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman urging people to pray at home and avoid Friday prayers in congregation. He hailed the responsible behavior showed by Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman.
He reiterated the message that currently staying at home and practicing social distancing is the only prevention and solution to control the spread of coronavirus in the country in his tweet.
The federal government had on Thursday decided to ‘restrain’ Friday congregational prayers as new cases of the novel coronavirus continued to emerge across the country.
“It has been decided with a consensus that Friday prayers will be restrained,” said Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Dr. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri during a news conference. “Only mosques’ administration staff and a limited number of worshippers will be allowed to pray inside mosques,” he added.
Read more: Govt to restrain congregational prayers: What does Mufti Taqi Usmani say?
He clarified that mosques will not be closed but prayers and zikr will continue inside them. Dr. Qadri said that the decision had been taken in consultation with ulema belonging to various schools of thought. “Ulema have been told to tell people to pray inside their homes,” he said.
“It is not only the job of the government to control coronavirus but also of the people.” The minister said that various programs, classes, and examinations across various madrassahs in Pakistan had been postponed in light of the outbreak.
Extensive calls were made on social media to close the mosques but conservative religious class resisted these calls.