CANCELLED DINNER: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Auqaf Department had reportedly issued a tender for catering services in order to host the session of the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee in Peshawar on the eve of Ramazan. The tender was supposedly cancelled after the menu got leaked on social media. Other than issues of transparency and fairness, such practices perpetuate the culture of entitlement and elitism, which is detrimental to the development and progress of society as a whole. Spending taxpayers’ money is a sacred task, and who knows it better than the clergy? By taking a proactive approach, we can uphold the values of fairness and justice in society.

Feroz Sadruddin
Karachi

MOONSIGHTING: About a week from now, the central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee will meet to decide about the fate of the Shawwal moon that would mark the end of the month of Ramazan. The committee would do well to recall the manner in which the beginning of the holy month had been announced late in the night. Within our region on the same day, Bangladesh had announced by 7.30pm that the moon had not been sighted. In these times when the sighting of the moon can be predicted years ahead with absolute precision, we should seriously consider adopting a scientific lunar calendar which can be done actually quite conveniently.

Z. Sayeed
Karachi

SMART CARD: I recently visited the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) office in Naseerabad, which is part of Dera Murad Jamali district of Balochistan, to have my expired CNIC renewed and replaced with a smart card. I paid a sum of Rs2,500 in this regard. To my surprise, when I visited to collect my card on the designated day, I was told that my documents could not be processed. I have been visiting the Nadra office ever since to get the issue resolved, but to no avail. Will any official from Nadra sort out the issue?

Ahmed Ali Korar
Naseerabad

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2023