Public thanks heaven for a Covid-free Ramazan

As citizens reflect on the trials and tribulations of previous years,

KARACHI:

For the past two years, Ramazan, a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community for Muslims worldwide, had been ridden with heavy hearts under the global coronavirus pandemic, and the port city was no exception.

This year, however, the government’s decision to do away with all pandemic-related restrictions and declare Pakistan virtually free of Covid-19 may have left Karachiites in a transport of delight but at the same time, it has also made them hark back to the trials and tribulations of yesteryear.

Haji Sultan Khan, who is a resident of Karachi’s Kemari area, believes that the difficulties that the city endured during the pandemic times are hard to forget and entirely recover from. “Even today, when we are no longer under an emergency situation, the long-term impact of Covid-19 still haunts us every day.

There were countless lives claimed during that time and our economy also took the hardest blows. We are grateful for better times, but we still need to heal and there will be a lot of reflection this Ramazan,” expressed the citizen.

On the other hand, per Muhammad Asif Abbasi, a resident of Lines Area, things have incrementally gotten better over the last two years. Recalling the year 2020 he said that it was the most melancholic of all Ramazans, as no one had ever experienced such a glum holy month.

“We were thrown into pandemic restrictions and everything that we had associated with the spirit of Ramazan, such as a sense of community, joy and togetherness was suddenly taken away from us. We could not meet our relatives for iftar; we could not hold congregational prayers; it was all very sad.

The year after that, Ramazan 2021 was a little better, or maybe we had sort of grown used-to of the new normal. It was still devoid of joy, but not as jarring. This year, all our restrictions have been removed and colour has returned to our lives, but there is still some hesitancy,” he told. For many citizens, what they missed the most during the last two years was the hustle and bustle and liveliness that Karachi would experience during Ramazan.

“The markets would be full to the brim and there’d be traffic everywhere on the streets during Ramazan. It would all seem a little annoying, but when the streets first fell silent in 2020, that is when we realised how much we missed that excitement; the iftar parties, the shopping, the night matches that would go up till the wee hours of dawn,” recalled Manzoor, a resident of Gulshan E Iqbal, who like many others is ecstatic about experiencing a restrictionfree Ramazan this year.