Daily Times

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Mohammed Yousuf has said that he will meet his Saudi counterpart to discuss increase in Hajj quota according to population ratio.

Speaking to journalists at the Karachi Press Club (KPC), he said that the Hajj quota was not linked with increased in population ratio but he was going to discuss this issue with his Saudi counterpart in coming days. “Let’s hope the result of the discussion and detail will come after the meeting with the Saudi minister for religious affairs,” he said.

He also said that the tutors would bound to provide food to Hujaj during Hajj 2017. To a question, he said that several travel agents have been penalised for not providing facilities to Hujaj during the Hajj 2016. He said that the government experienced Pakistan’s biggest Hajj operation in 2016.

The ministry also working on the legislation to ban the use of newspapers and other papers used in the printing of religious literature as well as pages from religious books, he said, adding that the government also working to build a recycling plant for this purpose. He said that the government was responsible to protect damaged and mutilated pages from the holy books and stop these acts from disgrace of religious material.

In this regard, “we have taken a religious decree (fatwa),” he said. “Verses from the Holy Quran and Hadith were printed in national dailies so this is the responsibility of the government to stop use of newspapers as waste paper in daily use,” the minister said. He said a committee for interfaith harmony has also been formed to look into the matters related to other religion.

To another question, he said that the state of Pakistan was for everyone whether someone was Muslim or belongs to any other religion. “We are trying to implement centralised time of Salah (namaz) and I will hold meetings with all four chief ministers in this regard,” the minister said. He also said that a committee has also been formed for the curriculum of Islamic seminaries to increase knowledge of students.

“During travel, facilities were part of the Travel Ministry, now a new draft has been prepared to allot this facility to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and hopefully we will enhance these facilities to Hujaj,” he said. On the occasion, he said that journalists have played a positive role in democracy and the Karachi Press Club has history of voicing democratic rights. He said that the journalists have contributed a lot in social development of the society.