Moon not sighted: Ramazan begins from Friday

PESHAWAR/ KARACHI:

Despite government’s efforts, controversy over sighting of the Ramazan moon continued this year as the official moon-sighting committee on Wednesday announced that the fasting month will start from Friday while an unofficial panel in Peshawar proclaimed the beginning of the holy month from Thursday (today).  

“The first day of Ramazan will be observed on June 19 (Friday),” said Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman after chairing a meeting of the committee at Pakistan Meteorological Department’s building in Karachi.

Mufti Munib said the decision was made with consensus of all members of the committee and its zonal committees. “There was no Shahadat [testimony] of the moon sighting from any part of the country on Wednesday,” he told reporters.

“We waited for a considerable time [but] no one sighted the moon, even in any part of Balochistan,” he said. Mufti Munib said the zonal committees in Islamabad and in other parts of the country were also in contact but no one confirmed any sighting.

“The decision is taken unanimously. Even the members who did not participate in the meeting have shown their confidence in the decision,” he said.

Mufti Munib urged that consensus was the need of the hour and asked people to show unity. “Pakistan is going through a tough time in its history,” he said in reference to the ongoing fight against terrorism as he appreciated sacrifices of the armed forces.

Meanwhile, the unofficial moon sighting committee at the historic Masjid Qasim Ali Khan of Peshawar continued its tradition of announcing Ramazan a day before the rest of the country.

The committee, headed by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai, said it did not sight the moon itself but announced Ramazan on the basis of some 33 testimonies received from across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Popalzai claimed that the testimonies were received from almost all major districts of the province, including Bannu, Kohat, Charsadda, Mardan as well as Fata.


Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2015.