Our Ramazan: Local moon sighting committee adamant on independent decision

Say they never have differences with the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee.

PESHAWAR:

Despite government efforts for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to observe Ramazan with the rest of the country, prominent clerics are adamant on holding independent meetings regarding moon sighting.

Both official and unofficial committees will hold meetings on Tuesday (today) to decide on the beginning of the month of fasting.

Provincial Minister for Religious Affairs Habibur Rehman had earlier announced Ramazan in K-P will be observed following the decision of the central Ruet -e-Hilal Committee (RHC).

To achieve consensus, a meeting was held last week to convince local clerics to work together with the official moon sighting body, but no significant breakthrough was made as the clerics were adamant to keep their longstanding tradition of making decisions on their own testimonies.

There are several such unofficial, yet influential, committees headed by prominent clerics in K-P particularly in Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda and Buner districts.



For years these committees at Masjid Qasim Ali Khan, led by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai, have diverged from the country’s official decision on the dates for the beginning of Ramazan and Eid.

“We have told the government we will cooperate and inform them of any developments and hold our decision till we get a notification from the central committee,” said Hussain Ahmad Madani, a member of Masjid Qasim Ali Khan’s committee.

When asked about their differences with the centre every year, Madani said: “We do not have differences, rather they reject our testimonies, compelling us to announce the beginning of Ramazan and Eid independently.”

Moreover, Maulana Muhammad Tayyab, a well-known cleric from Panjpir, Swabi has his own system. “We have more than 25,000 male and 10,000 female students who inform us when they see the Ramazan moon,” Maulana Tayyab said, adding their system is based on the “Islamic principles of sighting the moon with naked eyes.”

He further said the disagreement over observing Ramazan and celebrating Eid on the same day is due to the non-seriousness of the government to solve the issue. He suggested district police officers across the country should be made responsible to collect information regarding moon sightings and forward it to the RHC.

Last year, the defiance between central, local and unofficial moon-sighting committees increased over the Shawwal crescent as the official zonal committees agreed to observe Eid a day earlier than the rest of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2013.