国际英语新闻:Spotlight: COVID-19 affects traditions in Pakistan during Ramadan

ISLAMABAD, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan is celebrating the Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. In the religious month, families and friends gather for lavish meals or "iftar" at the post-dusk time to break the fast, hours-long congregation prayers at night and affluent people also hold iftar for the poor and needy.

Apart from social and religious sides, Ramadan also has a strong economic effect as the economic activities during the month are at their peak as compared to the whole year. People especially women and kids throng to markets to shop for iftar dinners and the Eid festival which follows the 29 or 30-day fasting month.

This year, Ramadan is not the same for the Pakistanis. COVID-19 outbreak in the country has affected the rituals and celebrations of the month in the same way as it affected other social activities across the country.

Currently over 13,000 people have been tested positive of COVID-19 across the country, and the federal and provincial governments imposed a lockdown and asked for social distancing nationwide with an aim to curb the spread of COVID-19.

"I do not have time in normal office days to meet or dine with friends and relatives, so Ramadan iftar dinners are a good opportunity to meet and greet people," Shaukat Abbas, an Islamabad-based businessman told Xinhua.

"Every year in Ramadan I invite my relatives, friends and even business contacts to break fast together, and most of the Ramadan evenings remain occupied, as I am either host or guest of the iftar dinners. But this year I prefer staying at home, and not inviting anyone because of the disease (COVID-19) scare," the businessman said.

The virus has not only affected the individual life style of people, but also had its impact on society as a whole. Every year during the month, affluent people and philanthropists organize iftar for poor laborers working on daily wages in markets or factories. The charity act is part of social and religious responsibility in Pakistan.

Rauf Ijaz, a trader in Rawalpindi city, is among the people who used to arrange iftar and pre-dawn breakfast for laborers every year in Ramadan, but this year the situation is different.

"Every year, traders collaborate to jointly organize iftar for laborers working in markets with us, and the poor people, but this year, iftar arrangements are not allowed as a part of the precautionary measures taken by the government to stop the disease spread. Besides, there are not many laborers in the city as most of them went back to their villages due to short of work opportunities and money in the market," Ijaz told Xinhua.

Ijaz added that unlike the past, "the traders are also not so enthusiastic to contribute fund for the poor laborers as they themselves are facing financial crisis due to the lockdown that already exceeded a month."

The COVID-19 has impacted the economic activities in Ramadan too, with restaurants and retail sector being worst hit this year because of a ban on restaurants to arrange Iftar dinner, a major economic drive during the month, and all retailers related to lifestyle sectors are required to be closed.

Shaukat Ali, manager of a famous restaurant-chain in Islamabad, told Xinhua that this year the government stops dine in service and they are only allowed to operate in take-away and home delivery. Now the sales are less than 10 percent of the usual routine and 2 percent of normal Ramadan sale.

"People are not interested in Ramadan take away because of the disease outbreak, every coming day is worse than earlier for the people working in restaurant sector. We have 30 employees here, we did not lay off any fulltime employee yet, but daily wagers had to leave due to non-availability of work," Ali said.

"There used to be a crowd of customers during iftar every year, but now we receive very little orders for takeaway," the manager said, adding that "but if we open dine in service it will put the restaurant employees and visitors at risk too."

"We hope that there should be a policy for the restaurant sector to allow dining in of a limited number of customers, lest a large number of people will lose jobs," said the manager.

In a bid to provide direct financial assistance to the people losing jobs, in Ramadan and the following months, the government has extended outreach of its cash transfers to 12 million households from the existing five million, which were already getting financial support through different relief programs in the pre-COVID-19 time.

The country's Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced a 1.2 trillion-rupee-relief package (over 7.196 billion U.S. dollars) to support the poor and jobless and business sector. Under the government's scheme poor households have already started getting money by an easy registration process through mobile messages.

Khan also formed a "Corona Tiger Relief Force" of volunteers to reach the deserving families with ration and to facilitate daily wagers and laborers who are unable to register for the government's cash disbursement program.

In a conversation with Xinhua, Abid Hameed, a resident of Punjab province's Chakwal district, who lost his job as a barber in a renowned hotel in provincial capital of Lahore, said that he lost hope and all the resources when he became jobless as he is the only bread-winner of his five-member family.

"I had no choice, but to come back to my hometown rather than sitting idle in Lahore, but at the time of despair, the government provided me financial assistance of 12,000 rupees to help me continue my life cycle for the time being," Hameed said, adding that the money and some savings by his wife will help him survive.

Non-government organizations and philanthropists across the country are also extending their full support to help the poor keep the wolf away from the door during the holy month and the tough period.