During the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started April 23, mosques remain closed in almost all Muslim countries, to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This is the case in Saudi Arabia, the spiritual center of the faith, including in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The religious leaders of the country, who also command global reverence, joined the King in asking Muslims to pray at home.

“It pains me to welcome the glorious month of Ramadan under circumstances that forbid us of prayers in Mosques…All this is due to the protective measures taken to save lives and human wellbeing in light of the global threat of COVID-19," King Salman of Saudi Arabia said in a statement. Link

Praying in mosques a “necessity”

Yet in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has allowed prayers to be held in mosques, giving in to pressure from fundamental Muslim clerics. He lifted restrictions around the country, in place since early April, permitting only five people or less in a mosque for Friday prayers. 

On April 17, the government joined prominent Muslim religious leaders in announcing that prayer gatherings would be allowed in mosques during Ramadan, including for those praying five times a day, the Friday prayers and the prayers after sun down during the holy month. The clerics said that the nation-wide lockdown was “not applicable to mosques” and that congregational prayers were a “necessity.”

Pressure from Islamist parties

The decision to allow congregations in mosques came a day after senior clerics of Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia warned the government not to restrict congregations in mosques and that they would disobey the lock down orders, according to a report in The Dawn. Link. Apparently fearing such protests could hurt his popular support, Khan agreed to open the mosques.

Despite little popular support and few parliamentary seats, Pakistan’s Islamist parties have an outsize influence on the government, says Madiha Afzal, writing in The Washington Post.. Link. This is due to their “ability to generate huge numbers of followers in the streets for protests…These parties are also used opportunistically by opposition parties and the military as a spoiler against governments in power,” she adds. Afzal, who is a fellow at the Brookings Institution, is author of Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State.” Link.

Ulemas Ignore precautionary measures

The government and religious leaders said that twenty measures are being implemented to stop the spread of the virus through the prayer gatherings, including social distancing, encouraging congregants to bring their own prayer mats and not allowing the elderly and sick in the mosques.

The implementation of the protective measures appears to be going badly. For instance, even at the press conference at the Karachi Press Club announcing the re-opening of the mosques, the religious leaders were seated next to each other, ignoring social distancing rules, as seen in photos of the event. Link.

Also, during the first week of the opening of the mosques, more than 80% in the capital Islamabad and the state of Punjab failed to enforce the protective measures, according to a survey by a non-government philanthropy. Link

Mosques in Sindh stay shut

As of May 3, Pakistan had 458 deaths and over 20,000 infections from the virus, according to data from John Hopkins University. Link. Experts say that, as in other South Asian countries, Pakistan is likely underreporting the number of virus cases and deaths. Link. It has a daily testing capacity of just 8,000 for a population of over 210 million.

Murad Ali Shah, the chief minister of Sindh, says that the number odeaths from Covid-19 are far higher than reported. "You may have…seen reports about dead bodies being brought to hospitals, which experts say cannot be tested for the coronavirus," he said at a press conference. As of April 14, the official number of deaths in the state was 41. But more than 300 bodies, brought to the hospitals in the state during the preceding two weeks, were not tested for the virus. Link.

Sindh is ignoring the Khan government’s decision, ordering that mosques in the state stay shut. Chief Minister Shah said he was acting on the advice of doctors. “Our hospitals are overwhelmed with patient inflows; we don’t want our health system to collapse.” Link.