Islamabad, Sep 26 (DPA) The Islamist alliance ruling Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has asked cinemas in the provincial capital Peshawar to close down for the duration of the holy month of Ramadan, media reports said Tuesday.

Muslims are expected to be more pious during Ramadan than usual by abstaining from food during daylight, offering extra prayers, giving more to charity and suppressing desires in general.

An official statement claimed the cinema owners agreed to shut down their businesses voluntarily but newspaper reports said their response was to the contrary.

Islamabad's Daily Times said the cinema owners refused to comply with the order.

"We told the provincial government the demand is unnecessary," one cinema owner told the newspaper, arguing that his business did not interfere with the Islamic prayers.

"We were forced to close down cinema houses," another owner was quoted by the daily Dawn as saying.

The Nation published a photograph of a shuttered cinema house in Peshawar but reported that the cinema owners were annoyed by the government order.

It was the first time in its four-year rule that the six-party Islamist alliance ordered the cinemas to be closed.