The Eid ul Azha will be celebrated across Pakistan on August 1, Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Muneebur Rehman announced on Tuesday.
In a notification, the religious affairs ministry said that the Zilhaj moon had not been sighted and 1st Zilhaj, 1441AH, would commence from July 23.
The announcement was preceded by meetings of the moon-sighting committee and other zonal committees in all provincial capitals of the country. In Quetta, Maulana Anwarul Haq Haqqani, as well as officials of the district administration and the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), gathered for the moon-sighting. PMD officials said the moon would be visible for more than 20 minutes and that the city’s skies were clear. On the other hand, a meeting of the zonal committee in Islamabad concluded, with its report sent to Karachi, according to Mufti Zamir Ahmed Sajid. The director-general of Punjab’s Auqaf and Religious Affairs, Dr Tahir Raza Bukhari, said the Zilhajj moon was not sighted in Lahore.
Earlier, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry had said that Eid ul Azha would be celebrated on July 31 in Pakistan ‘as per calendar of the Ministry of Science and Technology’. Taking to Twitter, Chaudhry had said that the moon for the month of Zilhajj would be seen in Karachi and its surrounding areas on July 21. He had added that the moon could be sighted with the help of binoculars and in some areas with the naked eye as well.
