It is nearing sunset in Karachi on the hot and humid evening of Wednesday, 12 May 2021. The weather, however, has nothing to do with the residents of the city's Gulistan-e-Jouhar neighbourhood congregating on their roofs and balconies. It is not fresh air they are looking for with their eyes peering towards the horizon, but the sleek crescent of the Shawwal moon (the new moon). The city's polluted air, however, denies them a chance at seeing either of them.
Not that the residents of any other city were having much luck if the news bulletins were to be believed. Like every year on this lunar date, people retire indoors as the sound of a siren followed by the maghrib azaan indicates the time for iftar. The same eyes which searched the horizon now are glued to the TV screens, as they sift through news channels, hoping to find out whether the moon has been sighted. Attention now shifts to the Pakistan Meteorological Department office in Karachi, and more specifically, the Ruet-e-Hilal committee press conference. The committee is Pakistan's official moon-sighting body made up of religious clerics and experts from the meteorological and space research departments. Over in Peshawar, the unofficial but influential moon-sighting body at Qasim Ali Khan mosque had already announced Eid for the next day. The rest of the country, however, would have to wait. The clock hits nine. To pray taraveeh or not? Ten. To get mehndi or not? Eleven. Surely not now. It would be till midnight before the official committee would be ready to make a decision.
Between the moon and maulana
24 News, a Lahore based news channel, was covering the press conference like every other media outlet in the country. The live feed on their Facebook page started about eleven minutes before the announcement, as members of the Ruet-e-Hilal committee are seen settling down in their respective seats, waiting for the newly appointed chairman, Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad to join them. One of the clerics on the committee, Mufti Yaseen Zafar, receives a phone call. He takes the call and, over the next few minutes, proceeds to lament about how the current committee is "weak", and that they are about to announce that the moon has been sighted, despite there being absolutely no chance for an actual sighting. He explains that the committee is obsessed with national unity, which is why they are taking this step.