PESHAWAR - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday set up a high-level committee to ensure the start of Ramazan and celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr on same days across the country in order to avoid the years long controversy over time schedule of the KPK and rest of the country.
This initiative is aimed to mull over start of Ramazan on same day with the rest of the country as, over the past so many years these occasions have been marred by differences among local, official and unofficial moon sighting committees to agree on observing Ramazan and celebrating Eid on same days. Thus, this time, provincial government decided to form a committee to settle this controversy, they added.
The four-member committee would co-ordinate with all moon sighting bodies to ensure Ramazan falls on same day all over the country. In this connection, a meeting headed by KP Minister for Religious Affairs Namroz Khan was held here, in which, the four-member committee comprising of Mufti Habib ur Rahman, Maulana Zahoor-ul-Haq, Maulana Khair ul Bashar and Maulana Shuja ul Mulk.
The members of the committee, who are all prominent religious figures, represent zonal moon sighting committees of Peshawar, Charsadda and Mardan. The committee would be in contact to official, non-official and local committees so that to have Ramadan and Eid on same day this year, they said.
This newly formed committee would first reach consensus over sighting of upcoming Ramadan moon, and after that, it would make announcement unanimously to observe fasting. It would certainly help to work together as KP religious scholars have oftenly been complaining against Central Moon Sighting Committee for not taking KP witnesses into consideration over sighting of Ramazan moon.
If this move succeeds, it would certainly be a big achievement, as this long-running controversy particularly between Masjid Qasim Ali Khan and the official moon-sighting committee - the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee would end, they concluded.