The meeting of Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will be held in Lahore today (Tuesday) with Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman in chair, for sighting the Eid-ul-Fitr moon.
Regional moon sighting committees would hold meetings in different cities of the country and collect witnesses to pass on to the central committee.
Chairman Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman would announce the decision whether the Shawwal moon sighted or not, on the basis of the information gathered and evaluation of the evidence.
Met Office moon forecast
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had earlier forecast strong chance of the sighting of Shawwal moon on Tuesday (today) with Eid ul Fitr likely to be celebrated on Wednesday.
An official of the met department had told the media, “According to astronomical parameters, there is a chance for the sighting of Shawwal moon, 1437 AH on the evening of July 5 on 29th of the Ramazan, 1437 AH. ”
“The new moon has born on crossing conjunction point at 16-01 PST (Pakistan standard time) on Monday,” the met office said. “The age of the moon will be of 27 hours at sunset on Tuesday. The new moon could be sighted for 36 to 40 minutes in coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan,” the weather office further said.
The weather is expected fair/partly cloudy in most parts of the country on July 5.
In Pakistan, weather office and most experts are confident that the moon will be sighted on Tuesday (today), there is hardly any precedent of Eid being celebrated on the same day with the Middle East countries in the past.
Eid in Gulf states tomorrow
Eidul Fitr will be celebrated in most Gulf states and Yemen on Wednesday as the moon was not sighted on Monday night, the authorities there announced on Monday.
The official news agencies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Yemen all quoted religious authorities as saying that since they had not received any eyewitness account of moon sighting on Monday, Eid will be celebrated on Wednesday.
