The venerable commitee

Islam?s wisdom in shunning a formal priesthood becomes increasingly more and more apparent. Over the last 1400 odd years, it has meant that popes need not be chosen; inclined as they are to acts that seem out of place for god?s representative on earth(errant popes [and a popess-how can we forget popess Joan] readily attest to the veracity my statement)-saving us countless blood, sweat and tears. As mullah-hood refines to a point where they lines between it and a formal papacy seem to diminish, do we come across other examples of why there should be no such thing in the first place. The roohat e hilal committee is the prime example of the suffering caused when bureaucracy and theocracy fuse; over the years its decisions have become a source of tragic humour and a target for derision. More than once, great swaths of the population sight the new moon, a feat that would then subsequently elude the committee despite their superior vantage point (the Habib Bank Building) and astronomical observatorial paraphernalia. This begs the question why, in the first place, must we call upon religious clerics to do a task that would undoubtedly be better undertaken by professionals that are more adept at peering up at the sky with telescopes. Just imagining all those mullahs trying to work those telescopes and bickering simultaneously sends shivers down my spine. ?A dozen mullahs on top of Habib Bank building?-the Pakistani alternative to the light bulb jokes? Indeed, we have the roohat e hilal committee to thank for a number of incongruities over the years. The least of which is the fact that different parts of our country, have come to celebrate the Eid on different days, in the very least one would expect that the committee could have managed at least some consensus on when the nation should celebrate Islam?s most important festival. Uncertainty over the sightings have reached the point where people are often unsure if there will be an Eid often late into Chaand Raat (lit. moon night, i.e. the night before Eid), clearly this must stop. The governments decision to use the mouth piece of S.U.P.A.R.C.O (The space and upper atmosphere research council-Pakistan?s equivalent of N.A.S.A) to announce the date of the new moon, is, I believe a step in the right direction. Afterall, logically it should be them who should have had the responsibility in the first place. Unsurprisingly, the committee members are livid--buffet dinners atop Pakistan?s tallest buildings are, if nothing else, addictive.