A meeting of the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee is currently under way in Islamabad to spot the Shawwal moon and ascertain whether Eidul Fitr — which marks the end of Ramazan — will fall on Wednesday or Thursday.
The meeting of the central moon-sighting body is being held at the roof of the Federal Secretariat’s Kohsar Block in Islamabad, while meetings of zonal and district Ruet-i-Hilal committees are being held at their respective headquarters concurrently.
The meeting is being chaired by Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, and attended by the members of the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee, as well as officials from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Suparco, and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Multiple countries across the world will celebrate Eidul Fitr on Wednesday (tomorrow) after the crescent was not sighted on Monday. Pakistan will also celebrate Eid with the rest of the world if the committee manages to spot the new moon today.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Australia are some of the countries which will be celebrating Eid tomorrow.
The Met department has said that according to astronomical parameters, there is a “chance” of spotting the moon today. It said the weather was expected to be partly cloudy or fair in most of the country.
A day earlier, the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee had also requested citizens to share any information regarding sightings of the moon with the committees in their respective areas.
Talking to Dawn, Maulana Azad had said that extensive meetings and discussions were held with clerics and religious groups across the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
All groups who had apprehensions with the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee in the past were taken on board and it is unlikely that any cleric would form their private moon sighting committee, he had said.
In the past, different parts of the country have observed Eid on different dates owing to differences in moon-sighting evidence and non-adherence to the Central Ruet-i-Hilal committee’s diktat.
Most notably, Peshawar’s Mufti Shahabudin Popalzai would often announce Eid in KP a day ahead of the rest of the country. In 2022, the country saw Eid being celebrated on three different dates in North Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of the country.
A similar situation occurred in 2012, when the residents of the then-tribal areas celebrated Eid on August 18, KP announced Eid on Aug 19 and the rest of the country celebrated on Aug 20.