Ramadan: Pakistan’s moon-sighting committee to meet today

ISLAMABAD: The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, the department that announces the lunar calendar in Pakistan, will meet in the northwestern city of Peshawar today, Tuesday, to sight the moon and announce the beginning of Ramadan.
Last year, the Pakistani government and Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, the newly-appointed chairman of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, agreed for the first time to work together and use scientific data to determine the sighting of the moon, which has for decades faced an annual controversy.
The beginning of the ninth and holiest month in the Muslim calendar, as well as the Eid holidays and the mourning month of Muharram, are determined by the sighting of the new moon in Pakistan, with the cleric-led Central Ruet-e-Hilal committee announcing when fasting should begin.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, the minister for science and technology, has drawn the ire of conservative clerics in recent years over his calls for a science-based lunar calendar. Last week, Hussain announced that Ramadan would begin on April 14.
“The Meteorological Department said that the moon of Ramadan has risen at 7:32 am today and it will be visible for over 35 hours after the sunset,” Geo News reported. “The weather department said there is a clear possibility of a moon sighting this evening.”
In an interview with Arab News last year, Azad said his committee would collaborate with the ministries of religion and science to gather scientific evidence to take a final decision.
“We have to act as one nation in celebrating our important religious and social events around the year, and we will be trying to unite people through our decisions,” Azad said.
But he added: “Let me clarify one thing: our final decision will always be based on evidence from witnesses as per Shariah.”
However, Hussain, the science minister, told Arab News: “The age of sighting the moon with the naked eye is over.”
“We must use scientific data and evidence to make our decisions regarding the moon,” Hussain said, adding that the government was setting up at least five observatories with latest telescopes, cameras for image and data acquisition and other necessary equipment to get accurate terrestrial and celestial data. The facilities would be set up in Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Pasni, a city in the southwestern Balochistan province that is believed to be one of thee first places from where the new moon becomes visible.
“The work on the Islamabad observatory is underway and the remaining will also be operational soon,” Hussain said. “These observatories will help us bury this moon sighting controversy forever.”