More than 1.5 billion Muslims around the world will mark the month, during which believers abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and having sex from dawn until sunset.

The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee announced on Wednesday that since Ramazan moon had not been sighted, the holy month would begin on Friday.

“No witness testimony regarding moon-sighting was received from across the country,” the committee’s chairman, Mufti Munibur Rehman, said at a press conference after a meeting at the Karachi Met Office.

Meetings of the regional committees were held in provincial capitals and representatives of the committee were present in almost every district.