PESHAWAR:
Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai of the Qasim Ali Khan mosque in Peshawar has made a formal announcement declaring eid-ul-fitr in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA regions to fall on Tuesday, August 30, 2011.
Mufti Popalzai in his formal announcement said that they had received testimony from 10 reliable witnesses and they would be celebrating eid tomorrow.Express 24/7 correspondent, Iftikhar Firdous reported that local councils had reported their sightings to the scholars in Qasim Ali Khan mosque where Ulemas decided that their testimony was reliable and that sufficient number of people over the corresponding area had witnessed the moon sighting to determine August 30, 2011 as eid.
Foirdous said that local people provide testimony of sighting which is forwarded to scholars who judge whether the witness and their testimony is reliable or not before coming to a decision.
Mufti Popalzai claimed that testimony was received Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan and the tribal belts of FATA, including Waziristan, and Khyber Agency.
Two eid in country once again
Firdous reported that no member from the ruling parties or the Jamaat-e-Islami were present at the meeting and they had refused to comment on Mufti Popalzai’s announcement, a measure of distancing themselves from the decision.
Firdous said that many people consider the verdict from the pre-partition Qasim Ali Khan mosque to be authentic, however there is a larger following of people who follow the ruling of Pakistan’s central Ruet-e-Hilal committee on moon sightings and eid declarations.
Eid in other parts of the world
The Shawwal moon has been sighted in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman and eid will be celebrated in these countries tomorrow.
Eid will also be celebrated in the US and UK tomorrow.
The Bohra community in Pakistan will also be celebrating eid tomorrow.