A sad Eid.

THE despondency over the increasing number of coronavirus infections that have claimed over 1,000 lives in Pakistan has been compounded by Friday's PIA air crash that killed 97, robbing the country of whatever little joy had been left at the prospect of Eid festivities. Indeed, rather than celebrating, the nation will find the day an occasion for sober reflection on a global health crisis and a national tragedy. The socialising that normally characterises Eid has been replaced by social distancing. Far from embracing each other, the coronavirus forbids even a handshake. Masks hide smiling faces, and one cannot dine out with relatives at home or at eateries. If all the SOPs, imposed by terror-stricken governments everywhere, are observed - and they should be as the mayhem the virus has unleashed is far greater than any sense of privation - one would not even be able to take a stroll in the neighbourhood park or the beach. Some have gone so far as to say that the SOPs hold sway over our fundamental rights, among them the freedom of assembly. On a lighter note, some of history's most ruthless dictators must be turning in their graves out of sheer jealousy because Covid-19 now exercises over billions of people the power they wished they could have wielded.

We can turn our thoughts to the brighter side of life and hope that by the time we observe the next Eidul Fitr, the pandemic would be a thing of the past. But what will take years to end is the pitiable condition of millions of Muslims the world over -...

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