Some of you, if not all, must be wondering as to what could be the rationale, if any, for me to refer to Eids in Kuwait and Pakistan only unless these are the only countries where Eid ul Fiter had been celebrated. The truth of the matter is that I being in Kuwait simply can not ignore Kuwait whereas my passport is green (Pakistani passport is green) not blue (Kuwaiti passport is blue) hence it is my national obligation to mention about my beloved home country.

I will try to spell out as to what are the similarities and differences between the two Eids in both the two countries which luckily are Islamic countries from each and every angle and perspective. In Kuwait the holy month of Ramazan commenced on Monday 1^st September and upon completion of 29 days circuit, it ended on Monday 29^th September and resultantly next day Tuesday 30^th September was the 1^st day of Eid ul Fiter in Kuwait whereas back home 1^st day of Ramazan was Tuesday 2^nd September and hence after 29 days of fasting, Wednesday 1^st October was the 1^st day of Eid in Pakistan. So far so good because month of Ramazan can be either of 29 days or 30 days depending upon the sighting of the moon and, therefore, none on the face of earth can ask or question as to how both Kuwait and Pakistan had only 29 days and not 30 days of fasting. However, I am not the only one, rather more correctly, one of those thousand of Pakistanis who are totally clueless not this year but ever since Pakistan came into existence as to why Eid, be it Fiter or Adha, is celebrated in North West Frontier Province at least one day before than rest of the country. Kuwaitis are completely alien to the idea and they simply do not know that there can be two eids on two different days within a country but this is the dilemma that can not be avoided in the country which owns me. Pakistan has Ruet e Hilal Committee whose members are paid honorarium if not salary for seeing the moon and announce if the new Islamic month has started or not and it is the only officially recognized entity to notify if the moon is sighted but here too in Kuwait there is no such committee but still moon is seen in Kuwait as well. Incidentally in Kuwait Adel Saadoun who is a known expert in whether forecasts and owns a big observatory has criticized about moon sighting and asserted that people must would have seen some other planet and not moon because as per his observation and calculation moon could not be sighted on Monday 29^th September. In Pakistan Senator Babar Ghauri who is a former minister as well wondered as to how government could announce moon sighting as late as 10 pm on Tuesday 30^th September and hence he demanded that an investigation be conducted to authenticate the moon sighting.

Kuwait government has declared 3 days official off on Eid meaning by Tuesday to Thursday 30^th September to 2^nd October and two more days of Friday 2^nd Oct and Saturday 3^rd October being weekly off are quite automatically added to the festival holidays and therefore people working in the public sector got 5 days continuous off. As per Kuwait Labor Laws, 2 days off is a must on Eid ul Fiter and Eid ul Adha hence the private sector was shut for Tuesday and Wednesday and some did add Thursday as ex gratia so that their employees are off for 4 days in sequence. A Kuwaiti friend of mone working in Immigration department, Ministry of Interior has told me that some of Kuwaitis and expatriates working in public sector have even taken 2 days off i.e. Sunday 28^th September and Monday 29^th September to enjoy 9 days off in one go and hence they availed the opportune to travel to overseas. Greater numbers of people have flown out of Kuwait but still quite a sizeable have travelled by cars as well to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain which are adjoining countries in any case.  In case of Pakistan it is not so because not only there were lesser holidays but also the people had no chance to travel by road to neighboring countries of Afghanistan and India unless one prefers to die than live.

In Kuwait both Eid prayers are held not only too very early but also at the same time through out the country without any exception irrespective of the locality and or the mosques etc. This time Eid ul Fiter prayer was held 0605 hours and each and every one had to pray at the same time through out the tiny oil rich exporting country irrespective of the fact whether praying at Grand Mosque, the biggest one in the country or Mahboola Mosque, the place where I live, or for that matter, open area in Jabriah where special arrangements were made for the day. One, God forbid, if misses the prayer at one place then unluckily he misses it through out the country and he has no chance whatsoever to offer annual prayers at some other mosque or place. Coming back to Pakistan I am to say that in each and every city different mosques had different timings starting from 8 am to 10 am etc.  I have read in newspaper that in Lahore, for example one could pray right from 8 am up to 9-45 am depending upon ones choice and convenience. The earliest prayers were scheduled at 8 am at Wazir Mosque and it continued on with 15 minutes difference in between till 9-45 am at Badshahi Mosque, the biggest in the city and second biggest in the country (Faisal Mosque, Islamabad is the biggest in Pakistan). My only question is as to who is correct, Kuwait maintaining one centralised time or Pakistan which has scattered time?