ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, the department which announces the sighting of the new moon, met in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday and announced the start of the holy month of Ramadan tomorrow, Tuesday.
Around the world, moon-sighting officials spent March 10 and 11 seeking to sight the moon in order to gauge the start of Ramadan, which is based on the lunar calendar. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE announced the start of Ramadan on Monday while the month will begin in Pakistan, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran a day later.
“We have received testimonies from different parts of Pakistan of the sighting of the moon of the month of Ramadan,” the committee’s chairman Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad said in a press conference, announcing that the first fast would take place on Tuesday.
The beginning of the ninth and holiest month in the Muslim calendar, as well as the subsequent Eid holidays and the mourning month of Muharram, are determined by the sighting of the new moon in Pakistan. Every year, the cleric-led Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee announces when fasting should begin in the South Asian country.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, wherein Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise till sunset for a month.
