KARACHI, Sept 30: A suspenseful controversy hit Shawwal-moon sighting and kept the entire nation on tenterhooks for hours before the central Ruet-i-Hilal committee announced on Tuesday that Eid would be celebrated across the country on Wednesday.

Political considerations seemed to have forced the committee’s hand when the NWFP government declared with uncalled-for haste that the elusive crescent had been sighted in the province and the festival would be celebrated on Wednesday.

As unconfirmed reports about Eid swirled around the central Ruet-i-Hilal committee, which remained in session hours after the sunset, chairman Mufti Munibur Rehman appeared for a third time on television at around 10.45pm and announced that incontrovertible evidence about the Shawwal moon had been received – not from the Frontier but from Badin in lower Sindh – and accordingly Eid would be celebrated on Wednesday.

He explained that the delay in the announcement of the “Eid moon” had been caused by the painstaking analysis of evidence received from the length and breadth of the country.

However, sources told Dawn that the committee had spent “quite some time weighing the option of ignoring NWFP moon-sighting reports”. But the option was ultimately rejected as divisive and politically injudicious.

Religious scholars insist that an Islamic month begins with the actual sighting of the moon. Those who sight the Shawwal moon first, celebrate Eid ahead of those who do not.

If the central Ruet-i-Hilal committee had not made the announcement it eventually did, three Eids would have been celebrated in Pakistan: one on Tuesday by those who follow Saudi Arabia in the celebration of the festival, second on Wednesday by those in the NWFP who sighted the moon on Tuesday and third on Thursday by those who act upon guidelines of the central Ruet-i-Hilal committee.

The final announcement of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee was

preceded by a flurry of activity in the NWFP which saw senior minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour, of the Awami National Party, first making an unscheduled visit to the provincial office of the committee and then making a public statement that reports had been received from district coordination officers about the sighting of the Shawwal moon.

No sooner had the NWFP Ruet-i-Hilal body announced that it had dispatched its reports to the central committee in Karachi than Mr Bilour declared that the crescent had indeed been sighted and Eid would be celebrated on Wednesday. He seemed to have ignored the earlier advice of Mufti Rehman, who cautioned television channels and unauthorised individuals against spreading unconfirmed reports about Eid.

Agencies add: In India, Eid will be celebrated in India on Thursday, according to an announcement made by Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid.

Meanwhile, Eid was celebrated on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Afghanistan Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian areas.

Sunni’s in Iraq also celebrated the Eid on Tuesday, while the Shias will celebrate the festival on Wednesday.

Egypt and Tunisia will celebrate Eid on Wednesday.

Eid was also celebrated on Tuesday by Muslims in most countries of Eastern Europe. Muslims in several parts of Philippines also celebrated the Eid, but President Gloria Arroyo announced that the festival would begin on Wednesday. Indonesia and Singapore have also announced that Wednesday would the first day of Eid.