Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Tuesday announced names of over 107,000 successful applicants for Hajj 2019.

Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri opened computerised balloting for Hajj, which would be completed tonight. The successful candidates would be informed through SMS or the candidates can check their application’s status online at: http://www.hajjinfo.org/

The applicants, who could not succeed over the past three years, were declared successful this time without balloting.

Speaking to reporters, the minister said the government received 2,000 applications of applicants aged 80 to 90 years. He said two assistants each would be sent with elderly woman pilgrims.

He said that on the whole, 216623 applications were submitted; 123,700 by male applicants and 92,923 by female applicants.

Qadri said the highest number of application were received from Punjab i.e. 108,006. From Sindh, 49,343 applications were submitted, 40,752 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10,258 from Balochistan.

From Azad Kashmir, 2,316 applications were received, 4,314 from tribal districts of KP and 2,422 from Gilgit-Baltistan.

This year, 184,210 Pakistanis will perform Hajj of which 107,526 will perform the annual pilgrimage under the government scheme and 71,684 will under private schemes.

According to the 2019 Hajj policy, intending pilgrims had to pay Rs 436,975 and Rs19,451 as optional charges for sacrificial animals.