On 6th September 2005, the government declared a two-day weekly holiday choosing Friday and Saturday. The declaration was immediately followed by the statement of a section of FBCCI (Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries) and BGMEA (Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association) leadership demanding Sunday to be the weekly holiday on the grounds of problem of communication with the rest of the world for 3 days. Their logic is that as in most countries Sunday is the weekly holiday, making Friday and Saturday as the weekly holidays would force the businesses to lose three international working days that would affect export and import adversely.

The notion of the negative impact on export and import due to the weekly holiday being Friday is not proved by facts. Friday has been the weekly holiday for fifteen years in Bangladesh and export-import has not ever diminished for that at all. Even after Friday being the weekly holiday, export and import have been increasing by 10-20% each year. In this period I have worked as the Deputy Governor of Bangladesh and Secretary of the Banking Division, Ministry of Finance. Businessmen and bankers have informed me a lot of problems but never have I been approached with any complaint of any hindrance in export or import for Friday being the weekly holiday. In fact Export Lc's are received from abroad, giving the exporter 30/60/90 days for export. Even if the last day is Friday, there is still no problem as ports and airports are open all days and all hours.

The same is true of imports. As such never a single consignment of import or export was lost due to Friday. Moreover, fax, internet and telephone communications are open at all hours on all days.

At the present moment, businessmen complete their works on the day before or after Friday as they would have done if the weekly holiday was Sunday. The idea of Friday being a deterrent to the export-import mechanism is entirely motivated and reflects subservience to western norms. The fallacy of this idea would be strengthened further by the export-import statistics of those countries where Friday is the holiday.

Talking about this issue, many people refer to the Surat al Jum'a of the Holy Quran which does not suggest of not working on Friday.

Even if this is the logic, it can be argued back that the Quran does not talk about any weekly holiday at all. If this is taken literally, we should have no holiday and all days should be working days.

Or, should it be suggested that Saturday and Sunday be the weekly holidays, when they, in fact, are the days of worship for the Jews and the Christians respectively? On the other hand no one can reject that Friday bears as much religious value to Muslims as Saturday and Sunday bear to Jews and Christians respectively.

So if there is a social need to select a day of the week as holiday why shouldn't we select the day to be Friday as Jew and Christian have selected it Saturday and Sunday respectively? If we have an iota of religious consciousness left we should naturally do so.

It may be mentioned that for a while this very debate was created in Bangladesh in 1997 when Newaz Sharif of Pakistan switches the holiday from Friday to Sunday. At that period an opinion pole taken in Dhaka by some students of Democracywatch shows that 66% people are for Friday.(Weekly Holiday,20 June,1997)

To conclude I would like to mention that some people in the west always want us to follow their culture. Attempt to shift holiday from Friday is also part of this. So I hope no government in the present or future would do so against the sentiment of the majority of the people.

[Shah Abdul Hannan: A Former Secretary of the Government of Bangladesh.]