‘Historic moment’: Pak leader who mocked Isro now praises Chandrayaan-3 mission

Former Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry, who once mocked the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), especially its Chandrayaan-2, termed.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission a “historic moment for humankind”. He congratulated the Indian scientists and space community on the lunar mission.

Fawad Chaudhry, a former Information and Broadcasting minister in the erstwhile Imran Khan government, said all media houses in Pakistan should broadcast the landing of Chandrayaan-3 at 6:15 pm (local time) today.

“Pakistan media should show Chandrayaan moon landing live tomorrow at 6:15 pm. Historic moment for humankind, specially for the people, scientists and space community of India. Many congratulations,” he wrote on X on Tuesday.

The sudden praise by Fawad Chaudhry for Isro’s Chandrayaan-3 came after a video emerged on social media last month, where the Pakistani leader appeared to take a jibe at India’s moon missions.

“Itne papad belne ki zaroorat nahi hai (there is no need for such efforts),” the former minister said at a TV debate.

“Chaand jo hai najar aa jata hai, exactly uski location pata hoti hai…kis territory me uska kya altitude hoga? (the moon is visible, its location is known, and what will be its altitude in which territory is also known),” he said.

His remarks did not go down well, with many social media users roasting the minister for his obsession with India and its space programmes.

In 2019, when the lander of Chandrayaan-2 suffered a technical glitch and was unable to land on the Moon, Fawad Chaudhry took a brutal dig at the lunar mission.

In a tweet, the Pakistani leader criticised India for “spending Rs 900 crore” on the Moon mission and claimed it was “unwise” to venture into “unknown territory”.

ALL EYES ON CHANDRAYAAN-3
Meanwhile, India is waiting with bated breath as the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 is set to attempt a soft landing on the Moon’s south pole at 6:04 pm today. The landing comes four years after the Chandrayaan-2 mission ended in part failure.

Later this evening, the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Vikram lander, currently in orbit around the Moon, will begin a slow, calculated descent on to the lunar surface. The landing sequence will begin around 5:45 pm and will last for around a quarter of an hour, a period that former Isro chief K Sivan has described as “15 minutes of terror”.

If all goes well, Vikram will land in an area near the lunar South Pole. Shortly after, the lander will open its doors to deploy Pragyaan — a six-wheeled rover the size of a coffee table — on the surface of the Moon.

This would make India only the fourth country in the world — after the United States, Russia, and China — to operate a rover on the Moon and the first to land near the forbidding South Pole.

The Rs 600 crore Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on July 14 onboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3) rocket.