Iqbal Jamil, our correspondent in Peshawar — Like all important religious events, Valentine’s Day in the province of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa has always been riddled with controversy as the province has always closely followed the lunar days according to how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows. The committee for the Valentine’s Moon Sighting sat on the 12th of February to sight the moon and the entire province was very happy when it was announced that the Valentine’s Moon was not seen in Peshawar but was seen in Jeddah and hence, the province decided to celebrate Valentine’s day on the 13th of Feb. It was also decided in accordance with the recommendation of the committee that all events should fall a day earlier. The frontier province has decided to celebrate the new years on the 30th of December from this year.
In other news, things in the city of Peshawar took a turn for the worst when a man torched himself to death during the celebrations of Valentines Day. Sources say that when everyone was exiting the mosque after offering Valentines Day prayer he entered and started yelling that no one told him that the prayers would be held according to the old time and not the new time. The person only known has Hakim doused himself with petrol and yelled, “Ye muhabbat ki aag hai!!!” before lighting himself up. The family of the deceased was too embarrassed to offer any comments till the publishing of this article.
The provincial community has asked the government to regularize the dates for important events, such as Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Boyfriend Day, 12 year old fruit eating boy dancing day and New Years Eve to be held on the same day as Saudi Arabia. Government sources would not confirm their stance on the 12 year old fruit eating boy dancing day but stressed that all other days should be celebrated with the rest of Pakistan except Valentine’s, Eid and the New Year.
