ISLAMABAD: Ramadan in Pakistan will begin on April 14 with the moon visible the night before in major cities, the ministry of science and technology said on Saturday.
For decades, the beginning of Ramadan as well as Eid were the subject of annual controversy and determined by a cleric-led moon-sighting committee. This is the first time the science ministry has officially made the Ramadan announcement, after the government and moon-sighting committee agreed earlier this year to work together and use science to determine the sighting of the moon.
“The moon of Ramzan, 1442 AH will be sighted on the evening of April 13, 2021 and the first Ramzan will on the 14th April, 2021 (InshaAllah). The moon will be clearly sighted in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi,” the ministry of science said on its official Twitter page.
Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Pakistan’s science minister, drew the ire of conservative clerics in recent years over his calls for a science-based lunar calendar, without which Ramadan and Eid would year after year begin on different days in different areas of Pakistan, depending on where the moon had been sighted by the human eye.
Ramadan this year in Pakistan comes amid smart lockdowns and health warnings as the country falls deep in the throes of a third wave of COVID-19.