The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will meet on Friday (today) for the purpose of observing the moon of the first month of the Islamic calendar, Muharram ul Haram. The zonal meeting in Lahore will be presided over by the Director General of Religious Affairs for the Punjab, Dr. Tahir Raza Bukhari, who will also be joined by representatives from the weather department. “The new moon of Muharram, 1444 AH will be born on crossing conjunction point at 22:54 PST on July 28, 2022,” the Met Office forecasted. At the same time, the Zonal/ District Ruet-e-Hilal Committees would hold their meetings at their respective headquarters including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar. On this occasion,the Central Ruit-e-Hilal Committee chairman has appealed to the people to make arrangements to see the Muharram-ul- Haram moon. Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, and thus marks the start of the Islamic New Year. Muharram also holds a greater significance – we know from the holy Qur’an that Muharram is one of the four sacred months.