Uniform prayer timings in capital from today

Imam Ka’aba will make the announcement at Faisal Mosque


Qamar Zaman April 29, 2015
PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Uniform prayer timings will be implemented in Islamabad from Friday (April 30). Imam Kaaba Sheikh Khalid Alghamidi will announce the implementation of the uniform prayer timings at Faisal Mosque, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Yousuf said on Wednesday.

President Mamnoon Hussain will also offer Friday prayers in the grand mosque.

Addressing media persons, the minister said scholars and imams have decided to implement uniform timings of prayers in Islamabad and nearby areas from May 1 whereas the procedure will also be put into practice throughout the country.

The ministry had prepared a calendar of prayer times for the entire year and handed it over to a 10-member Salat committee.

The committee met on Wednesday to make the final decision and from Friday onwards, the call for prayer and prayer times would be held at the same time across the capital, the minister said.

“There are some meetings yet to take place but the decision of introducing the system has been taken keeping in view the Imam Ka’aba’s presence in Pakistan,” a senior ministry official told The Express Tribune.

He said the committee working on uniform prayer timings was supposed to hold a meeting with representatives of educational institutes, religious and political parties.

However, the meeting did not take place and it has been decided that the ministry would take them onboard later. But right now the announcement should be made by the Imam Ka’aba, he added. The ministry had been working on introducing uniform prayer timings in the federal capital for the last couple of months.

On April 16, a consensus on uniform prayer timings was reached at a meeting of the representatives from Shia, Barelvi, Deobandi and Ahle Hadith sects with minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30th, 2015. 

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