Over the years, Pakistan has invested a lot of energy and resources in putting a lid on the seemingly avoidable controversy of moon sightings. But no bills–however appreciated–or much-trumped mobile apps have managed to create a consensus on this predicament.
Just like every year, Pakistan is set to celebrate two Eids; stirring a needless controversy and creating administrative hurdles for people from all walks of life. Now, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was justified in holding and adhering to a local committee in the centuries gone by considering the distance between the mountainous terrain and New Delhi (the seat of the Sultanate). But us living through all the ups and downs, tasting the fruit of freedom and appointing a laced-to-the-teeth body for the sole purpose of clarifying the confusion is apparently not enough for those leading Masjid Qasim Ali Khan.
The only silver lining in Gilgit Baltistan’s enthusiastic hop on the bandwagon was that we have been spared the dilemma of having three Eids. All humour aside, the previous government’s great fanfare about trying to bring the leadership on one page has fallen flat on its face and for the millionth time, raised a few eyebrows over the utility of the Roet-e-Hilal Committee. Last year, leaked audio footage of a cleric allegedly admitting orders from Islamabad to declare Eid even though they were closer to seeing the sun than witnessing the birth of a moon had fanned the flames of a “match-fixing” conspiracy by the then Federal Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
His previous haranguing with the country’s religious elite on the issue of using technology to ascertain festivals well in advance had not gone down well. Remember the infamous exchange with the dethroned centre of the moon-sighting body, Mufti Munib ur Rehman? Still, if that ingress gave the whiff of a proactive state ready to make some gutsy moves in an otherwise religiously polarised country, the return of Chinese Whispers is just as disappointing of a phenomenon. When Muslim-majority countries like the UAE and Turkey can follow a pre-decided lunar calendar without posing any threat to their diligence to the walk of faith, why is Pakistan reluctant to accept the advances of the new age despite its borderline obsession with these “friends?” Clearly, Pakistan is not that large of a country to fall into two different lines of sight.
Trying to come up with a magic formula that ensures all of the country steps into community prayer grounds on the same day and shows solidarity to its creed and homeland alike would be an honourable goal for the new government.
It should be a piece of cake considering the expertise with which it gathered a long list of opposition parties under the same banner. Use the tactful art of diplomacy here too and maybe, next year, we would be spared of the “is it Eid/is it not Eid” conundrum. *