September 14, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 1, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 13: The religious scholars’ efforts to follow a single Ramazan calendar throughout the NWFP proved to be futile as many people in parts of Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies and Charsadda, besides suburbs of the provincial capital, treated Thursday as the first day of the holy month.

While local committees, comprising prominent regional clerics, announced on Wednesday night that they had not received any confirmed report of moon-sighting from any part of the province, prayer leaders in some localities told people to fast on Thursday.

People in Peshawar, who usually follow the decision taken by the committee of the Qasim Ali Khan Mosque, too remained divided. Some people did not give credence to the announcement made by the mosque’s committee and followed the example of Saudi Arabia by fasting on Thursday.

City areas and its suburbs, where tribesmen or Afghan refugees form a majority, also rejected the decisions of the local moon-sighting committees and relayed announcements by Saudi Arabia-based radio and television channels, telling people to begin the month of Ramazan a day before the rest of the country.

People in Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber agencies were strictly asked to observe Thursday as the first day of Ramazan.

Senator Abdul Malik and MNA Noorul Haq Qadri had reportedly announced that Ramazan had begun and people should consider Thursday as the first fasting day.

Hazrat Nabi, a JUI leader, and other clerics defied the announcement and visited various markets and shopping centres, asking people not to follow the instructions of the Qadri brothers of Landi Kotal and instead start fasting from Friday.

Reports indicated that people who had been contacted by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader and other ulema did not fast but those they could not meet did do so.

Similarly, in the Charsadda district people who follow Saudi doctrine in religious matters did not pay any heed to the local clerics’ decision.

“Some prayer leaders ordered us to start fasting from Thursday but they avoided using loudspeakers to make the announcement,” a shopkeeper in Peshawar who belonged from Charsadda district said.—PPI