Fawad again locks horns with Ruet-i-Hilal Committee – Newspaper

LAHORE: Federal Minister of Science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry, has rekindled the controversy over the sighting of the moon by apologizing to the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee for what he says deceive the nation about the sighting of the moon to Safar, the second month of the Islamic calendar.

"[My ministry] He has published images for the beginning of Safar as evidence to show that the month began on September 30, while the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee made a mistake stating that the moon was not seen on September 30, therefore, Safar would begin on October 1 Now the committee must apologize [to the nation] for the wrong [on the moon sighting]"Said the minister while talking to the media here on Sunday.

There were differences of opinion between the Ruet-i-Hilal Central Committee and the one directed by Mufti Popalzai de Peshawar on the sighting of moons for Ramazan and Eidul Fitr.

Minister apologizes for Safar moon controversy

A controversy broke out when Chaudhry's ministry launched its website and an Android application to spot the moon during the Islamic months and suggested dissolving the official committee to save the expenses incurred in its sessions.

In criticizing the committee members, the minister said that young people and not octogenarians, a reference to mostly older members of the body, should participate to spot the moon since people had been trapped in the routine since the 1980s .

Referring to the objection of some clerics who are members of the committee that the evidence of the moon seen with the help of scientific devices is not acceptable from the point of view of Sharia, he said that the evidence of those who wore glasses [an allusion to bespectacled committee chairman Mufti Muneebur Rehman] It could not be accepted too.

On the long march planned by the JUI-F in Islamabad, Chaudhry claimed that the party chief, Maulan Fazlur Rehman, wanted to abuse seminary students for their political reasons. He also rebuked the leader of the religious party for demanding new elections in the country after the impeachment of the PTI government.

“The demand for new general elections is illogical. What link Maulana Sahib has with the new polls, while his party never competes in more than 60 seats, ”he said.

The minister alleged that both the PPP and the PML-N were using the head of the JUI-F by causing him to continue his protest march. He said that the two main opposition parties were not worried about the problems of the masses and that they supported the protest as a means to seek the release of their respective leaders.

"The PPP and the N League want to get their [respective] leadership released without reaching a guilty agreement [with NAB], while we still offer to pay and get their parents [released]. "

Dispelling the impression that the PTI government was victimizing the opposition through corruption cases, he said that the government had not instituted a single case and that the leaders of the two parties were behind bars due to cases recorded by they against each other during their respective tenures.

Responding to a question about the visit of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton, the minister said the image of the country was improving through international cricket matches and the visit of members of the royal family of the United Kingdom.

The ministry, he said, planned to form a battery research group so that the country could manufacture batteries locally and that they were also developing the largest biotechnology park in South Asia near Jhelum, their home district.

He said the ministry had also suggested generating gas for geysers from civic waste, while the Lahore and Islamabad development authorities had also been offered to recharge groundwater whose table is falling three feet per year.

Chaudhry said he had also approached the prime minister to lift the drone ban, as the technology could be used to spray pesticides and other tasks in the agricultural sector.

Referring to the JKLF's march on the Control Line, he said that people should wait for the last call from Prime Minister Imran Khan, otherwise it would damage Islamabad's efforts for regional peace.

Posted on Dawn, October 7, 2019