ISLAMABAD: In a bid to prevent disagreement on moon sighting for Eid, the Supreme Court summoned on Friday the rules governing the Ruet-i-Hilal committee and its notifications about appearance of the crescent.

“The Supreme Court judges cannot sit to see the moon,” Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed said, regretting that Eids were celebrated on different days only because the provincial committees did not accept the decision of the central Ruet panel.

He was heading a two-judge bench that had taken up a 2006 petition by Dr Aslam Khaki, who sought a court directive for setting up a high-powered committee comprising ulema as well as technocrats for moon sighing after dissolution of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee.

The petition had been dismissed because of lack of pursuance but the then chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani restored it in May last year.

The petition was filed against the backdrop of controversies over the sighting of moon for Ramazan and Shawwal, leading to a conflict between the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the central Ruet committee.

Dr Khaki, a jurist consultant to the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), had named as respondents the religious affairs secretary, the central and KP Ruet-i-Hilal committees, the provincial chief secretary, parliamentarian Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the Meteorology Department.

The petition said that despite the formation of the committees to promote unity among Muslims, they had failed to resolve disparity in the moon sighting. It pointed out that in the absence of such committees in the past, it was rare that Eids were celebrated on different days in the provinces. But now the matter had reached such extent that every time the Muslims of Pakistan were led to celebrating two and sometimes three Eids, thus dividing them on parochial lines, especially in KP.

Dr Khaki cited the example of 2006 when the then chief minister and people in Bannu, Mardan, Karak, Charsadda and parts of Peshawar celebrated Eidul Fitr on Oct 23 in accordance with the declaration of provincial Ruet committee.

However, Maulana Fazl and his followers in Dera Ismail Khan, Mansehra and Peshawar celebrated the Eid on Oct 24 and the central committee announced the celebration for Oct 25.

The petitioner asked whether the respondents had failed to meet their goal of uniting the Muslim citizens and contributed to splitting the community, and whether the formation of the provincial committee was against the spirit of the Constitution. He asked whether the people living in KP were bound to follow the declaration of the central or the provincial moon sighting committee.

The petitioner also suggested dissolving all the committees, leaving the people to be led by their own religious scholars keeping in view their geographical locations.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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