Sir: Ever since I have grown up, there has hardly been an occasion when moon-sighting for Ramazan and two Eids have not become a controversy. The Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry deserves praise for having courage to stand up and challenge the monopoly by so called religious clerics.
Over the years we have witnessed, clerics opposition moonsighting through scientific methods clerics the similar has been attitude of polytheistic religions like Hinduism where even today caste system exists and the accident of birth to Dalit parents condemns their children to lifelong abuse and racial discrimination.
Science is not based on fantasy but merely discovery of what Almighty has created and adapting that knowledge for betterment of human beings and the environment in which life is sustained. The moon orbits in a defined manner and through knowledge of science and astronomy we can determine the exact time when moon will be sighted at different locations on the earth.
Unfortunately the conflict in between different stakeholders has denied the Muslims of Pakistan to even celebrate Eid or observe Ramadan on a single accepted date. It is failure of the state to exercise its writ and nexus of few within establishment and clergy that has been cause for disunity and sectarian divides in Pakistan, while the rest of Muslim world observe these religious days on days declared by the state.
MALIK TARIQ
Lahore