Bickering over moon-sighting again

The beginning of the holy month of Ramadan was once again marred by bickering over the sighting of the moon as the Qasim Ali Khan Mosque in Peshawar announced on Sunday that the moon had been sighted and the holy month would begin on Monday (today) in the province and most of the tribal areas, a private TV channel reported.
The beginning of Ramadan on Monday coincides with many countries in the Muslim world such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. Mufti Shahab-ud-Din from the mosque told reporters that six witnesses had reported seeing the moon, one of whom was a woman. He urged the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee to contact the witnesses and confirm their accounts.
The committee is due to meet today for the sighting of the moon at the Met Office building in Karachi, which would mean that the rest of Pakistan would begin observing Ramadan on Tuesday, August 2. To a question, Shahab-ud-Din said he had not been pressured not to call a moon-sighting committee session. He said however that no representatives from the provincial government or Auqaf Department had been present at the session.
The local moon-sighting committee in Mardan also announced that Ramadan would begin on Monday, based on four accounts of the moon being sighted that it had received. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government declared that it had nothing to do with the decision of the Qasim Ali Khan mosque.