Pakistan

Country divided over dual Eids

Although most of the country’s population is celebrating Eidul Fitr today, other parts celebrated a day before.

Manzoor Ali September 10, 2010

PESHAWAR: Although most of the country’s population is celebrating Eidul Fitr on Saturday (today), parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, including the provincial capital, and some areas in Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan offered Eid prayers on Friday.

In Peshawar, the major Eid congregation was held at the Main Eidgah on the Charsadda Road but people in some parts of the Cantonment treated the day as being the last of Ramazan.

Talking to reporters after the Eid prayers, federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said the provincial government has decided to celebrate Eid on Friday in accordance with the decision of local ulema.

Bilour said that the religious festival should not be politicised. “We have no issues with anyone. Local clerics have announced Eid after carefully assessing people’s testimonies about the sighting of the moon,” he said.

Bilour said that the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee should have accepted testimonies of people belonging to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as they are also citizens of Pakistan.

Besides Peshawar, Eid was also celebrated in Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Hangu and Khyber and Mohmand agencies and other parts of the tribal areas. However, some areas of the provincial capital, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir, Chitral, Mansehra, Haripur, Abbotabad, Kohistan, Dera Isamail Khan and Tank district will observe Eid with the rest of the country on Saturday.

Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and Speaker of the provincial assembly Kiramatullah Chagarmati offered Eid prayers at the Governor House in Peshawar.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was not alone in celebrating the Eid. Parts of Gilgit-Baltistan also offered Eid prayers on Friday.

Skardu was the first town in Gilgit-Baltistan to announce Eid on Friday after a Shia scholar of the central mosque said he had received enough evidence of moon sighting.

However, it was not until 3 am on Friday that Shia clerics in Gilgit decided to celebrate Eid the same morning. “Announcements were made at about 3am from the loudspeakers of the main mosque in Gilgit, asking people not to fast on Friday,” said Imtiaz Taj, a resident of the Amphery area.

Taj said that the late announcement of Eid was to prevent people from indulging in aerial firing, an act that has triggered sectarian violence in the past.

In Balochistan, Eidul Fitr was celebrated in Qila Abdullah and Qila Saifullah districts where large congregations were held on Friday while the other 28 districts of the province will celebrate Eid today.

Both the districts share borders with Afghanistan and usually celebrate Eid with the neighbouring country. Administrations of both the districts also follow the decisions of private committees constituted by local elders who usually make announcements about moon sighting.

(With additional input from Shabbir Mir and Shehzad Baloch)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (11)

Nazir Habib | 14 years ago | Reply It's become a prestige issue between the Central Ruet Hilal Committee and the provincial committees. The molvis in the central committee are 'flighty' and 'non-serious' and are determined to excoriate the provincial committee in Qasim Masjid in Peshawar. When twenty people gave 'shahadat' including two ladies that the moon had been sighted in Peshawar and adjoining cities spread over the province, then why cant their evidence be taken and the country celebrate Eid on the same day??? KP province is a part and parcel of Pakistan and the laws in Islam are uniform for all and not bifurcated for different peoples and places. But these publicity hungry molvis carp over 'commas' and 'full stops' and make excuses where none are supposed to exist. No two molvis agree on a point when asked seperately and shy away from each other when asked in tandem. One 'Eid Mubarak' observed by the nation on Friday the 10th September 2010 would have given a quantum boost to the unity of the Pak Ummah. Immediately bring on the firing squad and shoot the molvis far and wide. Salams and best wishes.

Sultan Ahmed. | 14 years ago | Reply Finish the story, night has fallen.

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mussarat ahmedzeb swat | 14 years ago | Reply i can proudly say Swat has always celebrated Eid with the rest of the country.never believed in pukhtan cause of indepentence.

Shakir Lakhani | 14 years ago | Reply This has been going on for over fifty years. I was in Peshawer in 1973, and saw Eid-al-Azha being observed on two days (the same thing will happen this year). Can anyone explain how a few people saw the moon when all scientific calculations said it wouldn't be there? And why it happens every year? I thought this idiosyncracy would disappear after renaming the province, but apparently it didn't work. These illiterate clerics simply can't accept the fact that the sighting of the moon can be predicted accurately (just like solar and lunar eclipses). A lunar calendar (known as the Egyptain calendar) has been in use for 1400 years, and it usually coincides with the actual moon sighting in Makkah every month. Why can't we use this calendar and dissolve these useless Ruet-e-Hilal committees and save a lot of money?

abc | 14 years ago | Reply muslim countries should now celebrate eid with saudia arabia. there are so many things dividing us, we dont need another, unite the country and the ummat.

Sajjad Ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply A headline like: "Two eids celebrated in the country - two days of jubilation" Cant we have that ?? Pen is surely mightier than the sword and I believe its about time that our 'pen' be used in a profound manner!

Sajjad Ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply We're still united - no matter what Eid's been celebrated like that since centuries ... I dont think thats much of a problem. Snap out of your negativity Mr. Writer. Get mature (mentally)

Mariam | 14 years ago | Reply Nothing new. It happens almost every year.

Sultan Ahmed. | 14 years ago | Reply they claimed ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,have seen they claimed ,,,,,,,,,,,,,have not seen, both are respectable clerics, what should we do in such circumstances. one side is on right and other is on wrong, who is right,who is wrong????????????????????

The Only Normal Person Here. | 14 years ago | Reply Only Cricket unites us. I meant. Only Cricket unitED us.

Syed A. Mateen | 14 years ago | Reply The issue on which day Eid should be celebrated throughout the country will never resolve until the last day of the world. Let us not discuss this issue time and again as it is an affair which I don't think that it can be solved. We should not distract when people are celebrating Eid in Peshawar. The eyesight of Mullahs in Peshawar is 6/6 comparing to the eye-sight of the Mullahs of Central Reut-e-Hilal Committee. So any one who can see the moon first should celebrate Eid first. Let us all leave this matter alone on the Mullahs to decide between them. After two months, Eid-ul-Azha is coming. I don't think that Mullah's of Peshawar will conflict with the opinion of Central Reut-e-Hilal Committee's members. Celebrating Eid has become a matter of ego between the Mullahs of Peshawar and rest of the country. They will never agree to one point as when Eid should be celebrated collectively throughout the country on one day.

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