This yearโs National Islamic Ijtmah will take place at Kamuzu Stadium, Publicity Secretary for the organising committee Abdul Aziz Onile has confirmed the development in an interview with this website.
Onile says the committee has chosen Kamuzu Stadium because of some of the activities it has lined up which includes football match between Sheikhs and Muslim legislators.
โMuslims should expect a historical Ijtmah this year. All preparations are going well now as planned. We booked the place [Kamuzu Stadium] and have already made part payment. The venue will cost us K250, 000 per day. So, for three days we are expected to spend about K750, 000,โ said the PS.
The publicity secretary also revealed that the budget for this yearโs event is close to 10million Kwacha. He said this is so because of the skyrocketing of commodities which has occurred as a result of currencyย devaluation which has just recently taken place in the country.
Last year, new Muslim Association of Malawi (MAM) National Chairman Sheikh Idrissa Muhammad was under pressure after his organisation failed to hold the event as it was the tradition in the past.
However, the chairperson justified the cancellation saying the gathering, which was initially scheduled to take place in October was postponed due to financial constraints.
This prompted the committee to intensify its task of soliciting funds since some traditional donors were reluctant to fund the function due unconfirmed reports that suggested the organizing committee approached Malawiโs late state president Bingu wa Mutharika to sponsor the event which its budget amounted to ย 7 million kwacha.
But the committeeโs effort hit a snag after it managed only to source over 3 hundred thousand Kwacha hence putting the staging of the gathering in jeopardy.
However, this year seem to be there is some hopes as the organising committee has already started soliciting the funds.
โWe have all hope that this yearโs Ijtmah will take place as planned because there has been a positive response from the donor community,โ said Onile.
The event is expected to take place from September 14 to September 16, 2012 and the committee has since courted Sheikh Khalid Yassin as the main speaker for the event.
