Pakistan’s Science Minister Fawad Chaudhry launches the first Islamic Hijri Calendar
Eid ul Fitr 2019 will be celebrated in Pakistan on June 5, according to the country’s first moon sighting website and Hijri Calendar launched by Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister of Science and Technology.
This is the first time that Eid day has been announced much before the moon sighting in Pakistan to end the controversy and chaos created every year before Ramadan and Eid and putting an end to the practice of looking for it physically through telescopes by the Islamic clerics.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday launched Pakistan’s “first official” moonsighting website and a calendar showing main Islamic dates and months for the next five years based on scientific evidence.
The website, pakmoonsighting.pk, has been launched by the Science Minister. It features sections such as a monthly Hijri (Islamic) calendar for the next five years, a day-to-day lunar calendar against dates from the Gregorian calendar, and the dates on which the first day of every lunar month will fall.
On May 3, the minister had formed a committee of five experts from the ministry of science and technology, Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) to determine moonsighting for key Islamic dates such as Ramadan, Eidul Fitr, Eidul Azha, Muharram.
A mobile phone app is also under preparation by the scientific committee to allow people to sight the moon on their smartphones.