PESHAWAR: There was a sense of relief and gratitude as the faithful started observing Ramazan on the same day here and in rest of the country on Wednesday.
The moonsighting issue had caused divisions and bitterness in the previous years, but there was no such thing this year. The local, private moonsighting committee based in Peshawar and headed by Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai didn’t make it an issue and a matter of ego and announced the start of the month of fasting from Wednesday.
Some of the credit must go to Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, the new head of the official Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, who honoured Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai and his aides by visiting them and holding consultations with them some days before the moonsighting exercise.
The previous head of the official moonsighting committee, Mufti Munibur Rahman, had made it an issue of ego and refused to accept witnesses from Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who claimed they had sighted the moon. In fact, he would hurriedly end the committee’s meeting instead of waiting for witnesses and Ulema from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to argue their case that the Ramazan moon had been duly sighted.
Many Ulema claimed there was a sectarian angle as well that caused dispute about the moonsighting.
Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad also did the right thing by deciding to hold the official Ruet-i-Hilal Committee meetingin Peshawar on Tuesday.
Though the two committees, official and unofficial, met separately in Peshawar and made their own decision about the moonsighting, the fact that they met in the same city not far from each other ensured that there would have been some coordination between them.
This worked out well as both committees declared that the moon has been sighted and that Ramazan would begin all over Pakistan on the same day on Wednesday.It will be proper to mention that if there is a will there is a way.