KARACHI: The central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee on Friday announced that the Ramazan moon was not sighted anywhere in the country and the fasting month would begin from May 28 (Sunday).

However, Mufti Popalzai, the head of an unofficial committee which met at Peshawar’s Qasim Ali Khan mosque, and local ulema in Charsadda announced that Ramazan would begin from Saturday (today) as they got “credible” testimonies about sighting of the moon. In Bajaur, tribal people decided to fast on Saturday to follow Saudi Arabia.

The meeting of the central committee was held in Islamabad while its allied bodies in the four provinces met in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta to collect testimony to the sighting of moon.

In the evening, Mufti Munibur Rehman, the chairman of the central body, announced that no report of confirmed moon-sighting was received from any part of the country.

“It has unanimously been decided that the first day of Ramazan will be on Sunday,” he told a press conference.

The Met Office had already said that there was no likelihood of Ramazan moon-sighting on Friday.

In India and Bangladesh, the fasting month will begin from May 28 (Sunday).

According to media reports, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries already announced May 27 as the first day of Ramazan.

Turkey and Muslim communities in North America and Europe had announced that they would observe Ramazan fasting from May 27, based on astronomic calculations.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017