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Aradom
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Islamic Pakistan Adopts Western-Style
Weekends
Many Work First Friday in Two Decades
By Kenneth J. Cooper
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 1 1997; Page A17
The Washington Post
NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 -- Pakistan was open for
business today, the first time in the decades that government offices and
most private concerns in the Islamic nation have operated on a Friday.
In one of his first acts in office, newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif this week ordere a shift to a Saturday-Sunday weekend to conform
to Western practice and help Pakistan attract more foreign investment and trade. Since
1977, most Pakistanis have not worked on Friday, when devout Muslims follow a religious
instruction to assemble in mosques fo afternoon prayers.
The unilateral decision by Sharif, a former industrialist, surprised
business leaders who had been pushing for a realignment of the nation's
work week. Last year, the Karachi Stoc Exchange -- the nation's largest -- and textile
exporters in Faisalabad abandoned attempts to make Friday a work day after drawing opposition
from religious parties and failing to attract support from the weakened government of
then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The Koran, Islam's holy book, does not prohibit work on Friday. But most
of the Islamic world -- except for a few countries such as
Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey -- has adopted the custom of closing workplaces and taking
Fridays off.
Pakistan, created in 1947 as a haven for the Muslims of British India,
observed a Western-style weekend for 30 years until Prime
Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto introduced the Islamic custom in an
unsuccessful attempt to retain power by winning over Muslim clerics.
Arif Habib, president of the Karachi Stock Exchange, said last month that
the market had "given up" on the idea and lost hope that any future
government would risk offending devout Muslims. But securing a two-thirds
majority in parliament -- the largest majority that an Pakistani party has ever enjoyed -- appears to
have emboldened Sharif, who made no move to alter the work week when he
was prime minister from 1990 to 1993.
"This was a demand of the business community for a very long time," said
Ilyas Bilour, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers
of Commerce and Industry. "The factories are open, the business houses are open and all
the shops are open today. We are quite happy."
Offices of federal and provincial governments, including state-owned
banks, opened in the morning for a half day. So did the stock exchange
in Karachi. Bilour said factories stayed open all day but gave workers time off in the
afternoon to attend mosques.
Pakistan's largest religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, staged street
protests Thursday against the change and continued demonstrations around the
nation today. The party boycotted the Feb. 3 election and therefore has no elected
representatives who could challenge Sharif's decision in parliament.
"If we do have a weekly holiday, it should be Friday," said Syed Munawar
Hasan, the party' secretary general. "The Muslims should have
sanctity for Friday. Christians have Sunday. The Jews have Saturday."
Bilour predicted more opportunity for contact with foreign businesses on
Fridays would bolster Pakistan's foreign trade, but he dismissed as
unreliable various estimates of the size of the increase. Pakistan's
largest trading partners are the United States and Japan.
Hasan disputed that Pakistan would realize an increase in international
commerce, noting that the nation would lose business contact on Sundays
with such Islamic countries as Saudi Arabia, another major trading
partner.
"It has very little to do with business and trade. Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
the United Arab Emirates -- they have more exports than Pakistan,
and they take Friday as a holiday," Hasan
said.
Sharif announced the change in a televised speech Sunday, the beginning
of what turned out to be an unusually long work week here. This
weekend, most Pakistanis will do something else they have not done for 20
years -- take Sunday off.
) Copyright 1997 The Washington
Post Company
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