In Peshawar's late-afternoon heat, Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad climbed to the rooftop of the Auqaf Hall, raised a crescent moon towards the setting sun, and pronounced the sighting. Minutes later, Pakistan's Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee announced EidulAdha would be observed on May 27. The single declaration ended weeks of quiet suspense across the country, where families had already begun haggling over bakra prices and tailors had stitched their last Eid dresses.
For the past seven nights, the committee's regional sub-committees from Karachi to Khyber had scanned the horizon with telescopes and naked eyes, relaying reports to the central body. This year, the moon's visibility, even in the smog of Lahore and the dust storms of Balochistan, was unusually clear, sparing the country the ritualised disagreements that have flared before. In 2020, the Ruet-e-Hilal split along sectarian lines when some jurists insisted the crescent was visible a day earlier than the majority. This time, Azad told reporters, "the consensus was seamless."
Who matters beyond the minarets
Yet the moon's sighting isn't just about prayer timings. It's a soft-power signal to the Muslim world. Pakistan's ability to announce Hajj and Eid dates ahead of India and Bangladesh, both of which follow the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee's decisions, reinforces its claim as the region's spiritual pivot. Saudi Arabia, which hosts Hajj, has already set Hajj pilgrimage for June 14-19. That three-week gap between Hajj and EidulAdha in Pakistan compresses the global Hajj economy into a shorter post-festival spending spree: meat exporters in Sudan, rose-water distillers in Iran, and toy manufacturers in China all watch Pakistan's calendar the way currency traders watch the Federal Reserve.
Diplomatically, Islamabad's prompt announcement eases logistics for the 100,000-plus Pakistani pilgrims still waiting for visas. It also nudges Delhi to fall in line; India's own moon-sighting committee usually defers to Pakistan when the crescent is spotted first on the subcontinent. In 2017, India waited an extra day, sparking a brief bout of nationalist memes ("Pakistan's moon is faster than Modi's bullet train"). This year, Delhi's officials say they will announce on Tuesday, though bureaucrats privately concede they are unlikely to challenge the Ruet-e-Hilal's call.
When the moon became a proxy for politics
There is a precedent for this kind of calendar diplomacy. In December 1971, just days after Pakistan's military surrender in Dhaka, the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee declared EidulFitr on the same day as Saudi Arabia, despite the country being split in two. The move was less about faith than about projecting unity at the moment of maximum humiliation. Today, Pakistan's economy is in a deeper crisis, rupee at historic lows, inflation near 38 percent, and the IMF still haggling over the next tranche. A united moon sighting is the easiest pageantry available.
But beneath the piety, the market moves. Karachi's livestock markets had already factored in May 27. Traders report that mutton prices have firmed up by 8 percent since Friday. The 1.5 million sacrificial animals, mostly goats trucked in from Balochistan and Sindh, must now clear customs faster; the longer the animals wait at ports, the higher the feed costs. Meat exporters to Dubai and Malaysia are rushing to book reefer containers before other countries catch up on their own Eid calendars. The State Bank of Pakistan, wary of a post-Eid inflation spike, has quietly asked commercial banks to park liquidity in money-market instruments rather than pushing consumer loans during the holiday.
South Asia braces for a compressed festival season
For Pakistan, the May 27 EidulAdha lands in a political no-man's-land. General elections are due by October, and the caretaker government, installed after the Supreme Court disqualified two prime ministers in as many years, has little mandate to make economic decisions. The central bank's preemptive tightening may not be enough to stop a meat price surge that could tip urban voters already grumbling over power cuts and gas shortages.
Across the border, India's 200 million Muslims will adjust their calendars accordingly. But the timing could not be worse for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has spent the past week defending its decision to allow bulldozers into Muslim neighbourhoods after Friday prayers in several states. Social media is already awash with videos of BJP leaders wishing "a very happy Eid" while local officials impose last-minute restrictions on cattle markets. The optics will test the party's narrative of "sabka saath, sabka vikas" ahead of next year's general elections.
Bangladesh, where EidulAdha is the single largest economic event of the year, faces a crunch of its own. The government has set June 7 as the holiday, creating a 12-day gap between Pakistan's Eid and Dhaka's. That gives Pakistani exporters a captive market: traders in Dhaka report that Karachi's meat wholesalers are already offering discounts to clear stock before Pakistan's festival demand peaks. The arbitrage is small, just a few rupees per kilogram, but in a region where margins are razor-thin, every paisa counts.
For Nepal's tiny Muslim community, the timing is almost academic; their Eid will fall on May 28. But for Sri Lanka's 2.5 million Muslims, who have endured arson attacks on mosques and a president who once called halal certification "economic terrorism", the moon sighting is another reminder of how faith and politics overlap in South Asia's fracturing democracies.
What comes next
Expect the next flashpoint to be the Hajj flight schedule. Pakistan International Airlines has already announced extra flights from Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad to Jeddah between June 9-13. But if fuel prices spike again, or if Saudi authorities suddenly demand proof of vaccination for the new H5N1 variant detected in birds, those planes may fly half-empty. The Ruet-e-Hilal Committee's unity today could splinter under the pressure of realpolitik tomorrow.
For now, though, Pakistan's faithful have a date. Azad's announcement has already been forwarded on WhatsApp groups from Peshawar to Puttalam, from the Hindu Kush to the Bay of Bengal. The message is simple: Eid Mubarak, until next year's moon dispute, or the one after.
