Daily Times

The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) has registered 374,857 applicants for Hajj 2018 through 13 designated banks with 9,581 branches, involving more than 21,000 bank officials in online registration for 10 days through a centralised system.

This was informed in a review meeting chaired by PITB Chairman Dr Umar Saif on Monday.

PITB’s Hajj Management System helps federal government to automate complete end-to-end Hajj operations since the Ministry of Religious Affairs sought PITB’s help in 2013. The PITB on the request of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has also developed and launched Online Pilgrims Registration platform for the automation of their operations for Hajj last year.

A total of 95,000 pilgrims from Nigeria performed Hajj in 2017, 20,000 through private tour operators and 75,000 through government arrangements. NAHCON approached Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony for developing an Information & Communication Technology platform replica devised by PITB for Pakistan’s Hajj operations.

The meeting was further informed that NAHCON Chairman Abdullahi Mukhtar in a message said, “I appreciate PITB and Ministry of Religious Affairs, Pakistan for facilitating this bilateral relationship. We are pleased that you are using your talent to support your brotherly country, and the divine cause.”

So far, 1.6 million Hajj applications have been processed and 900,000 plus pilgrims are facilitated through this system.

Pakistan’s online system of Hajj management and balloting has replaced the manual registration of Hajj applications.

The process is executed in a specific time period of about 10 days on a single online portal and Hujjaj get registered as groups through designated banks. The process of balloting system is pillared on four steps that ensure transparency, efficient management, usability and convenience for all stakeholders. The designated banks receive applications and enter data and then applications are verified through transparent computerised balloting making them available for online inquiry to view the status of ballot results in no time.

The platform has more than 15 working modules including Pilgrim Registration System, Balloting, Automation of Haji Camps, Flight Booking, Building and Room Allocation for Mecca & Medina, Online Differential System, Hajj Group Organizers’ Management Information System, Monitoring System, Complaint Management, Online Inquiries and Mobile Apps.

The PITB has recently conducted week-long training sessions for Hajj Group Organisers Management Information System (MIS) for Hajj-2018 across the country in collaboration with Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) and Hajj Organisers Association of Pakistan. The training sessions were conducted in Quetta, Karachi, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad. Private Hajj Operators assigned a fixed quota of Hajj applications by MoRA participated in the training administered by the officials of PITB and MoRA.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.