PHC moved to seek dissolution of Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee

PESHAWAR: A petition was moved in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday seeking direction to the federal government to dissolve the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee for causing 24 hours delay in announcement of sighting of the Ramazan moon.

The petitioner, Shahid Orkazai, has made Mufti Muneebur Rehman, chairman Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, and federal government through Secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs as respondents in the constitutional writ petition.

The petitioner questioned the official declaration of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee about the start of the month of Ramazan and challenged its Quranic knowhow for regulating the Hijri calendar.

A special note was also given in the petition, which noted that the petition involves a serious breach of the State Religion wherein the majority of the Muslims citizens did commit a lapse in relation to their duty in Ramazan primarily due to the self-centered and ego-centric chairman of the committee.

About the facts of the case, it was submitted that the respondent chairman has once again plunged Pakistan into religious controversy by delaying the start of the fasting month of Ramazan for 24 hours. It said that for all practical purposes the unaccounted 24 hours shall remain part of the month of Ramazan.

"These 24 hours cannot be washed away by any means or switched to another month. That is not physically possible in the lunar calendar followed by Aale-Ebrahim and Banu Esra Ell," the petitioner explained, adding that the high court may ask the respondent chairman if he could be willing to correct and re-adjust the Islamic calendar on the basis of the full moon to occur later this month.

It was explained that by the Quran, the lunar calendar is to be regulated and corrected every month on the basis of the full moon. "The petition shall not concern the professional rivalry among the clerics and religious scorn about Ramazan between them over the past few decades. Both the Committee and its rivals in this province essentially apply the same method. The petitioner shall elaborate the basics of the lunar calendar exclusively from the Holy Quran.

He does not rely on any scientific equipment for determining the length of any lunar month nor has he anything to do with any lunar calendar being drawn by the federal government," the petitioner stated.

It stated that the petition is for averting any wrong pronouncement by the respondent chairman about the Shawal moon and seek a declaration from the high court about the lapse regarding the Ramazan moon.

As interim relief, the petitioner prayed before the court to immediately restrain the respondent chairman from making any public declaration about the sighting of the Shawal moon until decision is made about the petition.