At least 264 Tableeghi Jamaat members including 14 locals who were put in quarantine in Shahi Abdali Mosque of Multan some 21 days ago left for their homes on Tuesday after testing negative for the coronavirus.However another 130 people are awaiting for the laboratory test.
Last month, Punjab Inspector General had instructed all police officers to ensure that Tableeghi Jamaat members across the province remain in the Jamaat marakiz (centres) and to consider all such marakiz as quarantine centres.
The decision was made after 91 people tested positive for the coronavirus in different cities, where some 400 members were initially quarantined.
President of Anjuman Islamia Shahi Abdali Masjid Syed Athar Shah Bukhari Advocate, General Secretary Engr: Mian Abdul Waheed, Mian Abdul Sattar and Nauman Waheed alleged that District Administration Multan had made the quarantine centre a source of income and it was minting money at the cost of member of Tableeghi Jamaat.They said that District administration neither parveyed meal not supplied medicines not safety kits during last three weeks.
They reiterated their demand for a high level inquiry into the misappropriation of funds.
President of Anjuman Islamia Shahi Abdali Masjid Syed Athar Shah Bukhari Advocate, General Secretary Engr: Mian Abdul Waheed, Mian Abdul Sattar and Nauman Waheed alleged that District Administration Multan had made the quarantine centre a source of income and it was minting money at the cost of member of Tableeghi Jamaat.They said that District administration neither parveyed meal not supplied medicines not safety kits during last three weeks.
They reiterated their demand for a high level inquiry into the misappropriation of funds.
Deputy Commissioner Multan Muhammad Abdul Amer Khattak confirmed that the Tableeghi Jamaat members who left today were suspected patients and they were only allowed to leave after they completed the mandatory 21 days of quarantine and tested negative. He added that the members were provided transportation to take them home.
According to a notification issued from the office of the District Health Officer, most of the members belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and had come to South Punjab for routine preaching activities after the formation of groups during the Raiwind Ijtima.
Meanwhile, some members of the Tableeghi Jamaat who are foreigners were kept in DHA's marriage hall,Similarly 10,632 people were quarantined in 36 districts of Punjab but a few were proved positive otherwise more than 95 percent had tested negative for the novel coronavirus , according to laboratory reports and district administration officials.
They were quarantined in different isolation wards ever since they tested positive in the last week of March.
The deputy commissioner had said however, that repeat tests would be done on Tuesday (today) per the health department’s standard operating procedure (SOP) and if the result remained negative, they would be repatriated to their native districts.
According to the newly-posted DC Multan, double testing was necessary and was in the interest of the patients’ own health. “We want to be sure that these patients are not carriers of the virus and can be allowed to travel to their native districts,” said the DC.
Scores of people had tested positive for the coronavirus after they had gathered for the Tableeghi Jamaat congregation in Raiwind — comprising tens of thousands of people — held from March 11 to 15 near Lahore.
Even though the fast spread of coronavirus in Pakistan had become a known fact, the Raiwind Ijtima had gone on as planned. Punjab government officials had said at the time that all their "pleas" for postponing the congregation in view of the threat of Covid-19 spread had been rejected by the organisers.
