Like other parts of the country, the Christian community living in the twin cities will celebrate their festival of Easter on April 8 with religious fervor and zeal.
Easter sunrise will start the celebrations in the areas where
Christians live in large number and Churches with religious rituals and traditional festivity.
On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches.
They believe that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter.
The members of Christian community have started visiting markets to shop for themselves and their loved ones.
The main ritual of the Easter celebration is to decorate Easter eggs that come in various colours, patterns, styles and motifs.
About Easter celebrations, Minister In-charge of National Harmony, Dr Paul Bhatti said the festivals of minorities are celebrated officially by the government throughout the year to follow the true ethical values and in this regard, the upcoming festival of Easter will also be celebrated at higher level.
On Easter, people will come together, feast, pray, wish each other well and enjoy the moments, which will be sacred and blessed.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for National Harmony, Akram Masih
Gill has also distributed cheques among the members of Christian
community on the occasion of Easter.
The grant was given to the deserving members for celebrating the religious festival of Christians in a befitting manner.
“The government is committed to the uplift of minorities socially by their economic empowerment and removing discriminatory actions against the non-Muslims aimed at providing them with equal opportunities of development,” he said.
Commissioner visits under-construction road: Rawalpindi Commissioner Imdad Ullah Basal visited the Rawat to Kallar Syedian road, a 19 kilometer long stretch being completed at an estimated cost of Rs 9 million.
The commissioner was informed by the Punjab Highways authorities that the land had been acquired from Rawat to Sagri and the construction work was being carried out speedily on this section.
After the completion of this section, the construction work would be started from Sagri to Kallar Syedian road.
He was also informed that Rs 3.5 million were due from the Punjab government.
With this amount the construction work of Sagri to Kallar Syedian will be completed.
The commissioner directed that the trees which were creating hurdles in the completion of the project should be removed immediately in collaboration with the Forest Department Rawalpindi Circle.
He also instructed that the utility services be removed from the site at the earliest.
All the departments concerned should be called and a meeting be convened with the officers of those departments to decide the cut-off date for shifting the services so that the project could be completed within the stipulated period of time.
Later, the commissioner visited the Kallar Syedian by-pass.
SE Punjab Highways Farhat Munir and XEN Shakoor Ahmed Khan accompanied the commissioner.
The commissioner was informed that the length of the by-pass is 4.5 km and its estimated cost is Rs 5.3 million and three 1350 feet high bridges were being constructed on the by-pass to facilitate the commuters.
Ninety percent of the construction work has been completed so far and it would facilitate the citizens of Kallar Syedian town and would help to streamline the traffic flow within Kallar Syedian.
The commissioner also directed that the remaining construction work be completed as soon as possible for the benefit of the passengers.