Fact Check: Does Rawat Hilal Committee Cost Crores of Rupees?

The issue of moon sighting of Eid-ul-Fitr in Pakistan is often controversial.

In 2019, the former federal minister for science and technology, Fawad Chaudhry, tried to end this controversy through an app based on the lunar calendar. He had set up a five-member committee to prepare the lunar calendar, which included Sparco, Meteorological Department and science and technology experts.

However, the former chairman of Central Viewing Hilal Committee Mufti Muneebur Rahman and Mufti Popalzai did not accept this method and thus the moon sighting continued in the traditional way.

The federal government banned private hilal sighting committees in 2021 to resolve the conflict between the two Eids, but this effort also failed.

In the past few days, there was a trend on X (Twitter) that the expenses of the central Royat Hilal Committee are in crores of rupees, which is allegedly due to its more than 3,000 employees. However, it fails to fulfill its role and leads to wastage of public money.

Independent Urdu contacted Ministry of Religious Affairs Spokesperson Umar Butt to find out the truth about the claims of spending crores of rupees on the Royat Hilal Committee on X.

He said that the aim of the Royat Hilal Committee established by the Government of Pakistan is to announce the sighting or non-sighting of the moon every month. The current chairman of this committee is Abdul Khabir Azad, the provincial and central Royat Hilal committees have people from different schools of thought.

The Spokesperson of the Ministry of Religious Affairs further said that there are 21 central members of the Central Viewing of the Crescent Committee, which include officials from Islamic scholars, the Space Research Organization (SPARCO), the Ministry of Science and the Ministry of Climate Change.

Big meetings are held four times a year in Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhul-Hijjah and Muharram. The members of the committee do not receive regular salary or benefits for this work. However, they get whatever honorarium they want in terms of rent or TADA, which is not much.

According to Umar Butt, the full budget of the committee is kept from 35 to 50 lakh rupees, which is not even the full expenditure. He termed spending crores of rupees on the committee as propaganda.

According to the Chairman of the Central Viewing Hilal Committee, Abdul Khabir Azad, in only four central meetings in a year, they get an economy ticket for a car or plane and usually a day’s accommodation in a hotel, apart from this, nothing is given to the committee members.

Former Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri had submitted a written answer to a question in the Senate during his tenure, stating that the Central Royat Hilal Committee has 12 meetings in a year, of which the central meeting is only four.

An annual budget of 34 lakh 71 thousand rupees was kept for the committee in 2018-2019, out of which 31 lakh 45 thousand rupees were spent. The members participating in the committee meeting are legally sanctioned by TADA equivalent to Grade 20 Government Officer.

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