ISLAMABAD: With Eidul Fitr just two months away, the Supreme Court on Thursday resurrected a petition first moved in 2006, in anticipation of the uncertainty regarding moon-sighting that plagues the country nearly every year.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, restored Dr Aslam Khaki’s petition, which was filed when the sighting of the moon for Ramazan and Shawal became quite a controversy, bringing the KP government at loggerheads with the federal Ruet-i-Hilal Committee.

In his petition, Dr Khaki, a jurist consultant to the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), had named the religious affairs secretary, the federal and and provincial Ruet-i-Hilal committees, the KP chief secretary, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the Met Office as respondents. The petition maintained that despite the existence of Ruet-i-Hilal committees, there was still discord regarding Eid dates and the religious holiday was celebrated on different days in different provinces. The petition also states that such disagreements were very rare in the past, when these committees did not exist.

Now, the petition maintains, the nation was forced to celebrate at least two or even three Eids.

In the petition, Dr Khaki cites the example of 2006, when the KP chief minister and the people of Bannu, Mardan, Karak, Charsadda and some parts of Peshawar celebrated Eid on Oct 23 in line with the decision of the provincial moon sighting committee. However, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman and his followers in Dera Ismail Khan, Mansehra and Peshawar celebrated the auspicious day on Oct 24. The same year, the Markazi Ruet-i-Hilal committee decided that Eid would be celebrated on Oct 25.

The petition asks whether the people of KP are bound by the declaration of the central moon-sighting committee or the provincial one.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2014