Karachi’s largest Eid Al Fitr prayer congregation held after two years
10,000 people from all walks of life offer prayers at Bagh-e-Jinnah
After two years, more than 10,000 people gathered for Eid Al Fitr prayers in Karachi yesterday. The prayers, which were stopped two years ago due to the pandemic, were held at Bagh-e-Jinnah (old Polo Ground) on Ziauddin Ahmed Road in Karachi’s downtown.
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has been organising this congregation since 1958. Special arrangements were made to ensure sanitation of the venue, including the use of the disinfectant spray. A floral gate was specially built by the Parks and Horticulture Department of the municipality to welcome the faithful.
Special makeshift arrangements were made to let the people perform ablution at the venue before offering the prayers.
Special feature
A special feature of the venue was the display of the flags of the other Islamic countries to welcome their diplomats stationed in Karachi who usually offered Eid prayer at the same place.
The prayers were led by the Imam (prayer leader) of the Central Mosque of KMC, Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Saleemi.
Karachi’s Administrator, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, senior officials of KMC, senior government functionaries, high-ranking officers of lawenforcement agencies, lawmakers belonging to different political parties, other politicians, dignitaries from different walks of life, celebrities, sportsmen, and other social figures attended.
Notables among those were the leaders of Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) which recently joined the coalition government with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan People’s Party after the ouster of Imran Khan from power.
Talking to media persons after offering the Eid prayers, MQM leader, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, said that their party had entered into an accord with other coalition members to fully respect and recognise each other’s public mandate to rule and accordingly secure due share in the power.
Karachi’s Administrator told media persons that the Sindh government had the fullest resolve to join hands with all the concerned stakeholders to expeditiously resolve the issues of acute shortage of potable water and unavailability of public transport in the city. He said that these two issues also came under discussion when Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, came to Karachi for the first time after taking oath of his office.