Schools and restaurants have been closed, shops pull down their shutters early every evening, and the military has been mobilised to combat the spread of coronavirus(Chinese Virus) - but night after night the faithful flock to mosques across Pakistan for prayers.
Anxious over the virus's deadly rampage across the globe, officials have steadily tightened restrictions and banned travel during the upcoming Eid holiday to various countries, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
But they seem to have turned a blind eye to religious gatherings, fearing a crackdown could ignite widespread confrontation in the deeply conservative Islamic republic of Pakistan.
"There is much concern about backlash from major religious groups," said Saeedullah Shah, a doctor associated with the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association Covid-19 task force.
"It's a weak government," he stated for AFP. "Everything here is half-hearted."
Pakistan alone has recorded more than 840,000 cases and 18,500 deaths, but with very limited testing and a ramshackle health sector, many fear the true extent of the disease is much worse than ever thought.
Covid wards in several cities have been full or close to capacity for weeks if not months as a more contagious variant of the virus has pushed cases to surge in record numbers.
But even as the government pleads to the public to follow "standard operating procedures", as the virus guidelines are popularly known in the country, mosques are almost another country that do not require any government order or guidlines.
Maulana Muhammad Rizvi - who oversees the historic Markazi Jamia mosque in the garrison in Rawalpindi city-- stated the faithful has little to fear, and dismissed comparisons to the other covid attacked countries.
"Our prayers are quit different," he told, and insisted restrictions were enforced - at least under his supervision.
"They are non-believers and we are true Muslims. Repenting to Allah is our holy faith they don't repent, that's the reason for covid mass spread," he told AFP.
That sentiment permeates all levels of the society, with Prime Minister Imran Khan saying this Thursday: "In USA, India Brazil, people are dying on streets... Allah has been very kind to us compared to the rest of the world."
Still, he urged covid cautions, adding: "Next two weeks are very important for us, we have to bring corona cases down the graph."
Earlier this week Shiite Muslims gathered across Pakistan to mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Ali, one of the Prophet Muhammad's companions.
At a rally in the capital, initial caution gave way to emotion as masks were removed and participants dressed in black chanted religious songs and beat their chests in tight crowds.
Thousands also gathered in the eastern city Lahore, with the most demonstratively pious flagellating themselves and whipping their backs raw.
"We are all ready to sacrifice our lives, children and their families," Haji Shahzad Jaffry said to AFP.
"The disease has been around for the last one year, but those who have been against our gathering and mourning have been doing it for more than past 1,400 years."
Health experts in other countries say religious gatherings there have been a major contributor to what has become one of the world's worst outbreaks.
But that has not spurred changes in policy or behavior in Pakistan.
Ashfaq Ahmed, who recently returned to Pakistan from Britain, said he was shocked when he saw crowds pressed into the mosques and paying little concern to basic covid precautions such as social distancing and masking.
"It seems people here are in complete denial to the ChineseVirus," Ahmed told AFP.
Despite the evidence, Pakistani officials insist guidelines are being followed strictly across the country.
"If there is one place where Covid-19 guidelines are being followed that is at the mosques," stated Imran Siddiqui, a spokesperson for the ministry of religious affairs.
"I can take you through a market and then to a close-by mosque and you can see it yourself that people at mosques are far better at complying with safety measures." he added
Still, according to a poll published by Gallup Pakistan, 64 percent of people believe coronavirus is not as dangerous as it is made out to be in the media.
Despite the warnings and mounting death tolls — the faithful continue to flock to the prayer.
"God is very kind to us," stated Sohail Arshad at the Markazi Jamia Mosque in Rawalpindi city.
"If he has sent disease he is the one who will send the cure."
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