RHC members concerned over Fawad’s premature Eid statement

ISLAMABAD: As the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry continues predicting the moonsighting despite leaving the Ministry of Science and Technology, which had reportedly launched a website based on the lunar calendar, the members of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee (RHC) have expressed their concerns about the minister’s premature statement.

Fawad on Sunday had said that Eidul Fitr will be celebrated on Friday, May 14, according to the calendar and the Ruet app. However, the minister clarified in the same tweet that the final decision in this regard will be announced by the RHC.

According to a member of the committee, several members of the Committee have registered concerns to the RHC Chairman Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad that such statements by Fawad will encourage clerics like Mufti Popalzai of Masjid Qasim Khan Peshawar, who had earlier undermined the authority of the committee.

Responding to the query over the matter chairman of the committee Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad said that it was essential to finish the wrong past when up to four Eids were celebrated in the country.

According to him, one Eid is expected to be celebrated this year as the members of RHC have already started to woo the clerics who opposed the national body in the past.

 “We are engaged with clerics of all schools of thoughts and various groups, involving them in the process,” he said adding that the management of Masjid Qasim Khan observed Ramadan with the nation.

“I am sure that they will respect the decision made by the Ruete-e-Hilal Committee over Shawwal moon too,” he added.

He has recently requested Mufti Popalzai to send his representative to the meeting of the Central RHC.

However, the management of Masjid Qasim Khan has not only declined the offer but announced to convene the meeting of its RHC in the mosque.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the committee said that discussions have been held with the clerics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to respect the decision of the committee and they have extended the assurance in this regard.

But the new challenge for the committee was the statements issued by Fawad.

“Apart from the Shariah principles of moonsighting observed by the committee the only two other scientific sources for determining the age of the moon is with SUPARCO and the Met Office but both were under the Cabinet Division,” the member said.

For the sighting of the Shawwal moon, the meeting of the Central RHC has been called on Wednesday, May 12 in Islamabad.

  The meeting will be chaired by  Maulana Azad and will be attended by members of the Central RHC representatives from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the SPARCO, and the Met Office.

Ghulam Abbas
Ghulam Abbas
The writer is a member of the staff at the Islamabad Bureau. He can be reached at [email protected]

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