Pakistan turns to science, infuriating moonsighting mullahs

Imran Khan's Pakistan government has drawn the ire of conservative mullahs with calls for a science-based lunar calendar to calculate the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Pakistan, which faces an annual controversy over the date.

The beginning of the ninth and holiest month in the Muslim calendar -- as well as the Eid holidays and the mourning month of Muharram -- is determined by the sighting of the new moon.

In Pakistan a cleric-led "moonsighting committee" announces when the fasting should begin, but for decades it has faced disputes over the accuracy of its decision.

"Every year on the occasion of Ramadan, Eid and Muharram a controversy starts regarding moonsighting," Pakistan's science and technology minister, Fawad Chaudhry, explained in a video he tweeted on May 5 in which he recounted watching the committee use "old technology" -- telescopes -- to make their calculations.

"When modern means are available and we can determine a final date, the question is why we should not use this latest technology?" he argued. 

His ministry will form a new committee of scientists, meteorologists and Pakistan's space agency to calculate the correct dates for the next five...