The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee is scheduled to meet on April 2 (Saturday) for sighting the Ramazan moon, reported 24NewsHD TV channel Tuesday.

The committee's meeting will be held in Peshawar under the chairmanship of Chairman Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad.

The Ruet-e-Hilal Research Council said the holy month of Ramazan is expected to begin in Pakistan on April 3 (Sunday) this year while Eid-ul-Fitr is expected on May 3.

Ruet-e-Hilal’s Secretary-General Khalid Ejaz Mufti said: “The birth of the new moon of Ramazan is expected on April 1 at 11:24am. On 29 Shaban (April 2), the age of the moon should be at least 19 hours. In some parts of Pakistan, it would exceed 31 hours.”

The research council said that the difference between the sunset and the moonset will be 70 minutes in Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and Peshawar, 69 minutes difference in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Meanwhile, there will be a 68 minutes difference in Lahore, 69 in Quetta and 67 in Karachi.

According to the research council, sighting the Ramadan moon will be easy. The birth of the Shawwal moon is expected to be between April 31 and May 1 at 1:28am. “The new moon of Shawwal will be less than 18 hours old on the evening of May 29 in all parts of Pakistan,” according to Ruet-e-Hilal.

The difference between the sunset and the moonset will be less than 40 minutes due to which it will be impossible to sight the moon even with a telescope.

Therefore, the first of Shawwal (Eid-ul-Fitr) will be on May 3 (Tuesday) after 30 days of fasting.

In a statement earlier this month, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had said that there is a possibility that the Ramadan moon will be sighted on April 2.

"The new moon of Ramadan, 1443 AH, will be born on [the] crossing conjunction point at 11-24 PST on 01-04-2022," a statement from the meteorological department said.

"According to astronomical parameters, there is a good chance of sighting the new moon of Ramadan, 1443 AH on the evening of [April 2] i.e. on 29th of Shaban, 1443 AH," the statement said.

The PMD said that according to climate records, the weather is expected to be fair or partly cloudy in most parts of the country during the evening of April 2.

In case the holy month begins in line with the PMD's forecast, Eidul Fitr is expected to be observed either on May 3 or 2.