Early birds: A day ahead of the rest, K-P celebrates Eid

CM Khattak says Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee should have visited K-P to sight Shawwal moon

PESHAWAR: The tradition of celebrating two Eids lives on, as a majority of towns and cities in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) celebrated the religious event a day ahead of the rest of the nation.

Peshawar, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swat, Mardan, Kohat, Tank, and other parts of the province and the tribal regions celebrated Eidul Fitr on Sunday, while a few areas like Dir, Abbotabad and Haripur aligned themselves with the federal government.



A majority of the people in Peshawar celebrated Eid on Sunday, although a substantial number will still be celebrating on Monday (today) with the rest of the country.

Despite several threats of terrorist strikes on Eid prayer congregations – the largest of which was held at at Eidgah in Faqirabad on Charsadda Road – no untoward incidents were reported and a large number of policemen could be seen around every congregation.

Uniformed and plainclothes officials were on guard and on patrol. Around 2,000 additional policemen had been deployed in Peshawar to bolster their numbers.



“Local clerics in Charsadda declared that Eid would fall on Sunday after receiving several moon-sighting testimonies,” said a local resident, Mukhtar, while talking to The Express Tribune. “Even while rumours were rife that Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai had been arrested by the government, people followed the decision of the local clerics.”

A majority of citizens were of the view that shifting the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee moon-sighting moot from Peshawar to Islamabad had eliminated the possibility of a unified Eid date for the entire country.

Khattak on Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee

The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee should have visited K-P on Saturday to sight the Shawwal moon, said K-P Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.



Khattak celebrated Eid on Sunday in his hometown of Nowshera and exchanged Eid greetings with people at his house.

The K-P government did nothing regarding sighting of the moon as it is the sole responsibility of the federal government, he added.

"It would have been better had the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee come to Peshawar a day earlier and witnessed the whole process [of moon-sighting testimonies given by clerics]," he said. “We had no role whatsoever in it.”



He said that his government never influenced the process of moon-sighting and the clerics announced their decision after reviewing testimony from several sources across the province.

He said that the writ of the government was visible in the province as the law and order situation had improved considerably, adding that the province was headed towards complete normalcy, which was a major goal of the provincial government.

Flanked by K-P Minister for Excise and Taxation Mian Jamshaiduddin Kakakhel, MNA Dr Imran Khattak, and Tehsil Nazim Ashfaq, the chief minister said his government brought much-needed reforms in all sectors for the welfare of the people and that it is on track to achieve all the targets one-by-one.

He shed light upon the steps he took to control corruption and introduce reforms in various sectors.