Pakistan

Two Eids in Pakistan – again

The Eid controversy culminates as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, parts of Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan celebrate Eid today.

Express September 10, 2010

The dispute of Shawwal moon sighting ended up in celebration of two Eids on two different days.

Eid-ul Fitr prayers were held in different parts of Khyber Paktunkhwa and Balochistan on Firday, a day before the rest of the country.

Senior Provincial Minister Bashir Bilour said Eid will be celebrated with simplicity in the province this year. Strict security arrangements are in place, across Khyber Paktunkhwa, to avoid any unpleasant situation.

Meanwhile, two districts of Balochistan as well as Gilgit-Baltistan are also celebrating Eid.

Updated from the print edition (below).

Two Eids in Pakistan – again

Once again there will be two Eids in Pakistan.

Chairman Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Mufti Munibur Rehman has announced that Shawwal moon has not been sighted and Eidul Fitr will be celebrated on Saturday.

He made the announcement while addressing the media after the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee meeting for the sighting of Shawwal moon.

The meeting was held at the Pakistan Meteorological Department Building in Karachi. Zonal and District Ruet-e-Hilal Committees also held meetings in their respective areas.

However, following Rehman’s conference, Mufti Popalzai, head of the controversial Masjid Qasim Ali Khan in Peshawar, announced the sighting of the Eid moon – claiming that they had received a number of Shahadats (testimonies).

His announcement was backed by senior provincial minister Bashir Bilour, who said that the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will be celebrating Eid on Friday (today).

Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon are set to celebrate Eidul Fitr on Friday. The Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia ruled that since the Shawwal moon was not sighted on Wednesday, Eid would fall on Friday.

Most of the Gulf countries follow the lead of Saudi Arabia to set the day of the Eid feast.

Egypt’s Darul-Iftar, the body that issues Islamic edicts, also announced Thursday to be the end of Ramazan for the country.

Following suit, Lebanon’s Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni authority, likewise said that Eidul Fitr would be celebrated in Lebanon on Friday.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 10, 2010

Senior Provincial Minister Bashir Bilour's name was spelled incorrectly.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (28)

Muhammad Ziad | 14 years ago | Reply IzA Khataba Humul Jahiluna Qolu Salama . EId is when the moon is sighted period. The Media personals are free to celebrate eid whenever they wish to do so since sighting of a moon is too much for them to understand. Let us call three politicians today and 'DISCUSS' the issue of 2 EIDS !!! OMG .

Think therefore | 14 years ago | Reply We muslims are a sad medieval lot... no wonder the denizens of a modern world hate us .... we bog everyone else down... set a date... make a parallel calendar... get it over with...

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Asmat Jamal | 14 years ago | Reply On one end it was eid in Saudi Arabia and on the other end of the Muslim World it was eid in Malasia. Amongst the neighbours,it was eid in Iran, UAE, Afghanistan and China. Pakistan and India decided to celebrate it on Saturday 11 Sep 2010. It isn,t much an issue, but people start to make it an issue in Pakistan. The more the merry. After all there is nothing to rejoice in Pakistan

Farhan Qureshi | 14 years ago | Reply There is no harm in it ... ! Stop creating a scene here !

I.M | 14 years ago | Reply What is wrong with you Pakistanis,what kind of a nation are you...We in India have been celebrating Eid in South of India a day earlier and in north a day later for centuries now.Eid is celebrated when the moon is sighted if in south India which is closer to middle east moon is sighted earlier they can celebrate eid a day earlier.Similarly in pakistan Balochistan is jut a few kms.away from Arab land they might be sighting it a day earlier,what has this got to do with AZAB and crap that some one has mentioned here.And don't forget when we are celebrating Eid in India there are Muslims living in some parts of the world where the day would have not yet started so do we force them to celebrate eid in the midnight.If you don't understand the religion don't jump in to the conclusion please

Anwar | 14 years ago | Reply "TWO EIDS IN PAKISTAN"..... again.... and again.... and again.......!!!

Dr. Adnan | 14 years ago | Reply I just say we should just follow the EID on the same say when it happens in Saudi Arabia. That's our Islamic capital. If we do that then this whole 2 eid thing will never happen in Pakistan. I am tired of these people being divided into half.

Mohammad Nawaz | 14 years ago | Reply Hadith says that you should be able to see the new moon with the naked eye. Which means that if it is clouded or the sky is not clear to view the moon, you cannot say you observed it. Hence, it automatically moves to the 30th of the month, for which no sighting is required. It is quite simple. If the crescent of the moon was more visible on 30th, its only because yes it was a new moon the previous night but not humanly visible due to obvious cloud cover or unclear sky. So in my opinion the people in KP are just pushing their verdict, even though there haven't been many people watching it. The larger the population, the more credible should be the verdict, and the more people see it, the better.

Bangash | 14 years ago | Reply why doesn't country just celebrate Eid with Peshawar then ?

qamar | 14 years ago | Reply Yes, as usual this time too nation divided on Eid. But this time one Eid for Pakistani law-abiding citizens and second one for terrorists who are "Blessed" with ready-made force of youngsters they are recruiting for to become a future terrorists. Poor flood affected people are being misused by terrorists groups who are exploiting flood affected people in Southern Punjab and other parts of the country where they are army and local administration is busy in relief work while terrorists are turning those areas into breeding grounds of terrorists.

shiraz | 14 years ago | Reply its the same moon sighted in whole of the muslim world except punjab when saudi sees it ,it means that its eid punjab feels superior due to askari power nd so kings eid is different from masses

sohail | 14 years ago | Reply Arey leave this idiotic debate.. If they say that they saw the moon, let them celebrate.. who are we to interfere, aren't there more issues in our country that v leaving them indulge in these stupid affairs of stupid leadership.. floods should be the priority in every article so that the public do not forget the need of time..

Copper | 14 years ago | Reply There is only one mosque that creates the trouble every year; "controversial Masjid Qasim Ali Khan". They don't even realize that it was not possible to view moon on Thursday scientifically

Rabia | 14 years ago | Reply Why does it matter that different people celebrate Eid on different days? There are small religious communities across Pakistan that celebrate Eid a full week before others. And there are also communities that don't celebrate Eid at all. So just relax and let everyone exercise their right to practice their religion as they see fit.

abid | 14 years ago | Reply i just saw tthe moon myself...everyone saw it today in islamabad....it clearly was big enough to suggest that KPkwa was right....

zulfiqar baig | 14 years ago | Reply its very sad for us

musa seintun | 14 years ago | Reply I agree with Mubarik Tahir and Muneeb. Scientist can calculate exactly.It is time for unity.The Hilal have seen in Newzeland and Australia and Brunei earlier more time than Pakistan.If an eastern country see the Hilal ,the western country must see the Hilal with nearly the same latitude.In Hadith, the Prophet(PBHU) said start and stop fast if the Hilal seen,not mentioned must be the same country.At that time people informed so far around the empire by horse.Today we have electronic communication.The boundry of a country is mdae by men ,not Allah. Allah mentioned in Quaran ,the world is a village.So we can use it I think.The mullahs must know in the time of Sahaba, we established Islamic Empire,not a small country.

Waqas Qureshi | 14 years ago | Reply Don’t know why they always makes two eids , and how Peshawar always saw moon before the whole Subcontinent Region!

Waqas Qureshi | 14 years ago | Reply Don't know why they always makes two eids , and how Peshawar always saw moon before the whole Subcontinent Region!

hamza | 14 years ago | Reply where's the state of Pakistan??? can't we stop them ??

paanshaan | 14 years ago | Reply "The main reason why Al-Mighty Allah send Azab on Pakistan (the earthquake of 2005 and the floods of 2010) is due to very reason that Eid is not celebrate on the same day but people in Peshawar differs with the unanimous announcement of Reut-e-Hilal Committee." This statement literally just made me cry. its hard trying to be civil....

Mubarik Tahir | 14 years ago | Reply Here we go again. Our backwardness knows no bounds. Other nations have sent their personal to the moon and here we are who can't even see it. I think the main reason we are unable to decide about moon is Mullah's involvement in this matter. I would suggest that we give this task to scientists (non bearded of course) to solve this problem; it will also save all that money spent on Ruet-e-Hilal Committees.

Adil | 14 years ago | Reply Celebrating Eid on one day in the whole country is a sign of unity. The Pakistani people should set aside their differences and spread the message of unity to the whole world. Celebrating Eid a day before, will give you nothing but divide you into groups, not only in the country but ever in your province. So Please think. Long Live Pakistan

Tanzeel | 14 years ago | Reply Solution is simple, media MUST NOT give coverage to Mullahs other than official moon sighting authority.

Muneeb | 14 years ago | Reply I agree with Syed Mateen's points, especially about the issue arising only for the Shawwal moon. Why don't we have this conflict throughout the year, on every new moon? Another point is that we, as Muslims, are always complaining that our religious holidays are not recognized in the west. Have we ever considered that a holiday that is never certain, even in the US people celebrate two to three Eids, cannot viably be recognized because of the practical impossibility of declaring it ahead of time? seriously, it is a shameful state of affairs, and we should at least be able to bring an end to this nonsense in the 21st century!!! when we follow Saudi Arabia for Hajj - there is only one Hajj in the world, isn't there? - then why can't all Muslim countries follow Saudi Arabia for the rest of the lunar calendar??????

K Z Kakar | 14 years ago | Reply not two Eids but two different histories and geographies. pakistan and pashtoon are two different things.

Adnan Tariq | 14 years ago | Reply Apart from peshawar, which other city celebrates eid a day before karachi........ is it the whole of N.W.F.P or wat?

Syed A. Mateen | 14 years ago | Reply This is not new in Pakistan. I do not remember when did we have one Eid and in which year? Peshawar always the lead the country in celebrating Eid and this time two women have come up with the witnesses. The main reason why Al-Mighty Allah send Azab on Pakistan (the earthquake of 2005 and the floods of 2010) is due to very reason that Eid is not celebrate on the same day but people in Peshawar differs with the unanimous announcement of Reut-e-Hilal Committee. In one the live TV shows, I have requested Mufti Muneebur Rehman that instead of sighting the moon in Karachi and Lahore, he should always go to Peshawar first to sight the moon where people can sight the moon much earlier than the members of Reut-e-Hilal Committee, but till date he has not made any visit for this specific reason. The only issue comes on the Eid Moon. Why people in Peshawar do not come up first in sighting the moon during the month of Moharram as on which day the Aushara will fall or any other moon of the Islamic Calender? How can we have Allah’s blessings after the whole month of Ramadan when people fast, pray five time a day, give khairat and zakat to the needy and poor and finally celebrate two or three Eid’s in the same country? May Al-Mighty Allah have mercy on all of us. Ameen.

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