ISLAMABAD: Among the many issues concerning the country’s national security, the National Assembly on Tuesday spent a good amount of time discussing if the weekly day off should be reverted to Friday.

On private members day, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah of Jamaat-i-Islami moved a resolution for this purpose, which initially received across the aisle support.

Followed by Mr Tariq Ullah, a fellow party member from Swat, Aisha, Maulana Ameer Zaman of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and Nafeesa Khattak of PTI in their speeches impressed upon their colleagues on both sides how important it was to have the weekly off on Friday rather than Sunday.

Their unifying argument was thus: since Friday is the most religiously important day for Muslims, a day off would allow them to devote more time to meditation.

Moreover, they were of the view that because people have to offer their Friday prayers with special preparation, they are neither able to focus on their jobs, nor on their prayers. The religious affairs minister, Sardar Yousaf, also supported the move.

In his speech on the floor of the house, the religious affairs minister said the issue was not of whether to have the weekly day off on Friday or Sunday, but how to use Friday for religious purposes.

He said: “We have seen people waste such holidays by playing and getting involved in other activities.”

Mr Yousaf said that the government had introduced special prayer timings within Islamabad under a special initiative, with the agreement of all religious schools of thought, and that a similar measure was needed all over the country.

He said that if this house agreed, the government had no objection to the resolution presented by Mr Tariq Ullah.

However, it was Capt Mohammad Safdar of the PML-N, whose outright support in favour of the resolution which seemed to have an impact on National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who was for passing the resolution for the government to respond.

Mr Safdar, who is also the prime minister’s son-in-law, said that no Muslim could think of opposing this resolution considering the religious importance of Friday to Muslims. In addition to supporting the move, Mr Safdar suggested that: “If Mr Tariq Ullah, whose party is in the ruling alliance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gets a similar resolution passed in the provincial assembly, it will help us in the National Assembly to follow suit.”

While the speaker was all set to put the motion before the house for voting, it was the leader of the opposition, Syed Khursheed Shah, who asked Mr Sadiq to first put it before the relevant standing committee for an in-depth discussion. However, the speaker insisted on voting and letting the government decide the fate of the motion after its passage.

Minister for Defence Khawaja Mohammad Asif surprisingly opposed the move. Recalling the decision of the PML-N government during its second tenure in the late ‘90s of changing the weekly day off from Friday to Sunday, Mr Asif asked if the Holy Quran and Hadith categorically underlined Friday to be spent as a religious holiday.

“Who stops Muslims from offering Friday prayers? The decision to have Sunday as off has been condoned by the successive government, which shows its correctness,” he said.

Railway minister Khawaja Saad Rafique also chipped in, saying: “We have already suffered a lot for displaying extremist mindset. Lets not get into such unnecessary discussions.” Noting the clear opposition from the two senior ministers, the speaker agreed to forward the motion to the standing committee concerned for discussion.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2016