Uniform Prayer Timings: ‘90% of mosques implement policy’

ISLAMABAD: Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf on Friday said uniform prayer timings had been implemented in more than 90 per cent of Auqaf-controlled mosques in Islamabad and that the policy would be enforced in other parts of the country. Consensus has been developed with provincial authorities to implement uniform timings throughout the country, he said while speaking at Masjid Syedna Hassan, G-9/4, before Friday prayers. He appreciated the role of religious scholars in developing consensus to follow uniform timings. Yousaf said Ministry of Religious Affairs has also established a special cell for the cause. He said a number of Muslim countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Bosnia had adopted uniform prayer timings many years ago, but “we only moved towards this in recent years”. He said uniform prayers timing calendars have been sent to all mosques in the capital, while expressing hope that the remaining mosques would adopt them soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2016.