Ramadan moon disputed
According to Khabrain, all along the Afghan border the moon was sighted by the local clerics a day earlier (Monday) and the first of Ramadan announced without reference to Islamabad where a central moon sighting committee (Markazi Ruet-e-Hilal Committee) functions under a chairman who is also a member of the Council Islamic Ideology (CII). In Quetta, the announcement of one-day-early fasting came late, which resulted in parts of the city not fasting together with the rest of the province. The announcement for the Monday fast was made by the cleric-members of the JUI. In some parts of Bajaur, the fasting month had begun on Sunday because an enthusiastic cleric claimed that he had seen the moon. But he didn’t carry a consensus therefore the area ended up observing the opening of Ramadan on two different days. It seemed that the prayer-leaders followed their religious parties rather than the local trend, In Khanewal in Punjab, for instance, a cleric announced Ramadan and got his locality to go on the fast. When the fasting citizens went out and saw the city busy eating as usual they were greatly embarrassed.
Moon-sighting committee falls apart
According to Jang and Khabrain, the central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee member Maulana Hassan Jan, of Peshawar went on record as saying that Mufti Munibur Rehman was requested by him to wait for the reports to come in from the NWFP but the chairman was in great hurry and announced a non-sighting. He even accused him of talking on his cell-phone to some authority in the government before hastily issuing the verdict. In his defence, Mufti Munibur Rehman said that all the members of his committee had agreed that no moon was actually sighted. He said this was confirmed by 20 meteorological centres in the country. According to him, disagreement emerged afterwards and it was political rather than factual. He also informed the press that the government had set up provincial moon-sighting committees to remove differences of opinion. But, alas, some unofficial ‘parallel’ committees too had sprung up to queer the pitch for the system of moon-sighting.
Moon Committee divided
According to daily Pakistan, the Ruet-e-Halal Committee got divided over the sighting of the moon. The chairman decided that the moon was not sighted but one member of the committee went to Peshawar and announced late at night that the moon had been sighted and got the police to open the mosques and made them announce the first day of fasting.
Fewer Pakistanis in Qatar
Quoted by Nawa-e-Waqt, Dr Rafiq Ahmad of Nazria Pakistan Foundation said that Pakistanis had been made to leave Qatar because a Pakistani minister had called Qatar ‘an unimportant small state’. He said there used to be 18 percent Pakistanis and 10 percent Indians in Qatar but now it was the other way around. He asked the government to send a minister to Qatar and patch up with the government there since the Pakistanis from there remitted $87 million annually.
Big assets declared by politicians
According to Jang, the assets declared by the elected politicians to the Election Commission revealed that one Azam Swati was worth Rs 3.3 billion, Shaukat Aziz was worth Rs 40 million, Ishaq Dar 29 million, SM Zafar Rs 5 million, Khalid Ranjha Rs 6 million, Maulana Samiul Haq Rs 4.1 million and Maulana Noorani Rs 8.6 million. |