ASTRONOMY is an ancient science. As a matter of fact, it is widely acknowledged by scientific community that thousand years ago, astronomers accurately plotted the movement of heavenly bodies and predicted their appearance. Wooden sailing ships navigated the vast oceans and even early aircraft corroborated their rudimentary navigation instruments with the location of the heavenly bodies. A thorough knowledge of astronomy was essential for seafarers and flyers alike.

Today, with the help of modern tools, such as radio-telescopes as well as supercomputers, the appearance of our closest astronomical neighbour can easily be predicted up to the minute.

Our own meteorological department is quite capable of predicting the birth of the new moon, and it even does so, but no attention is paid to such assertions by the government and the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee.

However, the number of employees and the budget of this department may well exceed the entire administration of some European countries that have very lean governments. But we are averse to the idea of using its input.

As for the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, it is an organisation that has no tangible function at all. The only occasions when people even talk about it are Eidul Fitr and Eidul Azha. And what people talk about it is not always positive. This is so because there are often disharmony and confusion in its decisions and announcements.

The sooner this committee is disbanded, the better it will be for the national exchequer, and the nation will celebrate religious occasions in unison. All we need to do is to take meteorological department’s advice on the appearance of the crescent, or follow Saudi Arabia with a lapse of one day.

Asif Jah
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2024