A meeting of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will take place on Monday evening to sight the Muharram-ul Haram moon which will mark the advent of new Hijri year 1440. Chairman Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman will preside over the meeting at Pakistan Metrological Department’s office in the metropolis. Earlier, the Met Office had predicted that Muharram-ul-Haram will begin on September 12. This means that Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, will fall on September 22. According to Abdul Rashid, director at the PMD Climate Data Processing Centre, the new moon of Muharram 1440 AH will be born on crossing conjunction point at 23:02 PST on September 9, 2018. “According to astronomical parameters, there is a slight chance of the sighting of the moon of Muharram on the evening of September 10, (on 29th of Zilhij 1439 AH),” he added. Published in Daily Times, September 9th 2018.