Daily Times

Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood on Sunday announced that the ministry would bear the expenses of Qurbani for the pilgrims performing Hajj on government scheme. Addressing a press conference accompanied with Secretary Religious Affairs Dr. Aftab Akbar Durrani, he said Qurbani had been included in the same package as the decision was made to provide a sigh of relief to the intending pilgrims performing the most expensive Hajj of the history. The minister informed that the pilgrims performing Hajj on government scheme would be provided a coupon of Qurani by the Director General Hajj Abdul Wahab Soomro before the start of Hajj days in Saudi Arabia without charging any extra money.

It is worth mentioning here that earlier, the expenses of Qurani were not included in the exiting Hajj package, in fact, the ministry had some savings that were being used for pilgrims’ ease and comforts.

Putting a question mark on the Hajj expenses of 2019, he said after passing through a period of four years, the ministry was hiring buildings and airlines services on a low cost despite inflation in the international market adding that he had asked the ministry to prepare a comparative study of last a couple of years Hajj expenses and promised to make it public.

Highlighting the main factors of increase in Hajj expense, the minister said due to surge in dollars price and depreciation in Pakistan’s rupee, the Hajj expenses were risen in the country. Regarding mandatory Hajj training, he mentioned that it was compulsory for all intending pilgrims but those who could not attend it due to some serious issues, no hurdle would be placed on their way to pilgrimage. Senator Talha said as many as 26,000 pilgrims would take benefits of ‘Road to Makkah’ project as their immigration process would be completed at the Islamabad International Airport.