Interestingly, people in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had started fasting along with other areas in Pakistan from May 17 this year.
PHOTO: EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD : The controversy over the sighting of Shawwal moon refused to die down and two Eids were celebrated in the country: This year too, the self-styled moon-sighting committee set up in Peshawar’s Masjid Qasim Ali Khan announced celebrating Eid a day before Eidul Fitr was celebrated elsewhere in Pakistan.
The ‘committee’ maintained that it had announced that the Eid would fall on June 15 “after receiving at least 44 testimonies” from various areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding the sighting of the Shawwal moon.
Interestingly, people in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had started fasting along with other areas in Pakistan from May 17 this year.
UAE to celebrate Eid on Friday as Shawwal moon sighted
When this correspondent contacted officials concerned at Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and asked them if the Shawwal crescent could have been sighted anywhere in the K-P on June 14, they said, “It was impossible … the Shawwal crescent was not visible to the naked eye on the evening of June 14.”
Citing scientific calculations, PMD officials insisted that there was no chance of sighting the Shawwal moon on June 14 anywhere in the country except some coastal areas.
But when no report of moon sighting was forwarded from even these areas, the Central Ruet-e-Hilal committee concluded that the Eidul Fitr would be celebrated across Pakistan on June 16.
The PMD had issued a detailed statement regarding the sighting of the Shawwal moon according to which there were ‘slim’ chances of moon sighting on June 14 and informed the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee in advance.
When Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Dr Qibla Ayaz was approached for his comments on two Eids in Pakistan, he questioned the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee’s legal status and criticised it for announcing Ramazan and Eid.
He also expressed concern over the self-styled moon-sighting committee of Peshawar’s Masjid Qasim Ali Khan on observing Eid on a day other than elsewhere in Pakistan.
“As long as the current arrangements continue (to hold), the entire nation should respect it, but there is a need for defining appropriate state policy that must be adequately debated and promulgated into law by parliament. Moon sighting for Ramazan and Eidul Fitr should be in line with the entire region, including the Gulf states and Turkey,” he suggested.
Parts of K-P celebrate Eidul Fitr
Dr Ayaz further said that because time zones of most countries in the region are almost identical, moon sighting system should be unified.
“It will be better if the entire country started observing fasting in Ramazan and celebrating Eid on the same day … This will eliminate the need for an unwieldy Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and zonal committees,” maintained Dr Ayaz.S
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