KARACHI: The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has stated that there is a “fair chance” of sighting the new moon of Ramazan on the evening of February 18, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to a letter by the department’s Climate Data Processing Centre (CDPC) in Karachi to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, dated Jan 26, the new moon of Ramazan “will be born on the crossing conjunction point of 5:01pm on Feb 17”.

“According to astronomical parameters, there is a ‘fair chance’ of sighting the new moon of Ramazan 1447 AH on the evening of Feb 18, 2026,” it said.

Furthermore, the weather was expected to be partly cloudy/fair in most parts of the country, it added. In the letter, the PMD also shared the last expected times for moon sighting in various regions on Feb 18: 6:58pm in Azad Jammu and Kashmir; 7:47pm in Balochistan; 6:53pm in Gilgit-Baltistan; 7:13pm in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; 7:08pm in Punjab; and 7:24pm in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2026