#Thinkfuture: ‘Malala invited to October conference’

Fawad Chaudhry says Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg will also be invited to the sci-tech conference

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Monday that Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai has been invited to a forthcoming sci-tech conference titled 'Think Future' in Pakistan.

“October 17 is the birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (Muslim scholar in British India), the day the international science conference will be held," he told a press conference in Islamabad.

The PTI leader said Malala will attend the conference, adding that he also wanted the people behind top tech companies to be a part of the event.

“We are sending invitations to Tesla owner Elon Musk, Bill Gates, CEO of Google and Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg to attend the conference in Pakistan,” Chaudhry said.

He said the moot's purpose was to attract the world’s attention towards Pakistan in the field of science and technology.

Lunar calendar

The federal minister also spoke on the issue of moon sighting, and said he would request the federal cabinet in its next meeting to abolish the Ruet-e-Hilal committee, the competent authority mandated with moon-sighting, and replace it with a lunar calendar.

In May, Chaudhry, with the help of experts, prepared the lunar calendar to end the moon-sighting controversy, a move rejected and opposed by the Ulema.

Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, he added, had appreciated the app.

“It would be an honour for the country if lunar calendar is approved by Muslim countries at the next Organisation of Islamic Cooperation conference,” he said, adding that "it would be the first ever undisputed calendar of the Muslim world".

Videogate

Chaudhry said the government had nothing to do with the affidavit of accountability court judge Arshad Malik in which he made startling revelations against the Sharif family.

“Our [government] only concern is to recover the looted wealth of the country,” he said.

In a press conference earlier this month, the PML-N had unveiled a video in which, according to the party, the accountability judge said he was pressured into convicting Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia case sans any evidence.

Later, however, the judge claimed he was offered Rs500 million by the son of the ousted prime minister to resign on the pretext that he could “no longer deal with the guilt of having convicted the former premier under duress and without evidence”.

Meanwhile, the law ministry barred him from serving as an accountability court judge.

Firing a broadside at the opposition, he said the former prime minister and his daughter Maryam Nawaz failed to justify their assets worth $3 billion, which "according to NAB ordinance is corruption".