ISLAMABAD: The first monthly calendar for uniform Azan timings for sects in Islamabad has been finalised and will be released at the Faisal Mosque on Friday (today).

Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf will announce the Nizam-e-Salaat in the presence of Imam Kaaba and the president before Friday prayers.

In accordance with the Azaan calendar, all sects including Shia, Hanfi (both Deobandi and Barelvi) and Ahle Hadis will offer prayers at uniform timings.

The calendar is for the whole year and on May 1, 2015, Fajr will be at 3:47am, Zuhar at 1:15, Asr at 4:55, Maghrib at 6:57 and Isha will be offered at 8:37pm. All year, Friday prayer would be offered by all sects at 1:30pm.

Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Mohammad Yousaf told Dawn the move is the first step towards promoting sectarian harmony and eradicating political differences among prayer leaders of the same sect.

Imam Kaaba and president will participate in ceremony

“We hope that this system can be implemented all over the country eventually,” he added.

While the announcement for the uniform system called Nizam-e-Salaat will be made on Friday, the preparations have been finalised. However, no authority has been given the responsibility of implementing the system and even the mechanism for the distribution of Azaan and Namaz calendar is unclear.

“Initially, the calendar will be made available at the Faisal Mosque on Friday,” a senior ministry official said.

“It is expected that the ICT administration will be responsible for distributing the calendar and ensuring its implementation” he added.

Meanwhile, Auqaf Department officials and the ICT officials complained that they have not been involved in the preparation of the calendar and its implementation.

“They (ministry) only asked us for the list of clerics and nothing else. No one has informed the ICT that they are responsible for monitoring Azaan to ensure the call is made at the same time at all mosques,” an ICT official said.

Similarly, it is unclear whether those who call the Azaan at a different time or those refusing to comply with the calendar timings will be penalised or not.

The religious affairs minister said that the Ulema will be made responsible for complying with the calendar timings while they (Ulema) refused to take responsibility.

“We are not an implementation authority, nor can we force any cleric to follow timings even if they are from our sect,” said Allama Abdul Aziz Hanif, member of the Nizam-e-Salat Committee of the Ahle Hadis sect.

He said since the government has introduced the system, they must also be responsible for its implementation.

Even before the announcement of the Nizam-e-Salaat, there were voices of dissent and criticism among religious circles. “This whole exercise is a cosmetic solution to the real trouble facing the country-terrorism,” said Muhammad Afzal Haidri, secretary of Wafaq ul Madaris al Shia.

He said after its failure to implement the National Action Plan on Terrorism, the government started taking superficial measures to distract people from the core issues.

The Islami Yekjehti Council, led by Qazi Abdul Qadeer Khamoosh said the new system is very similar to a move initiated by late General Zia ul Haq, which also failed.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2015

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