Daily Times

Lahore High Court (LHC), on Monday, asked for concluding arguments in the petition filed against Hajj Policy 2019 on Tuesday.

The petition was taken up by Justice Aisha A. Malik.

It stated that the government had demanded Rs 4,56,000 in its new Hajj policy. Previously, the pilgrims paid Rs 2,80,000 for Hajj under the government scheme.

The government was now said to have withdrawn the subsidy offered to the pilgrims; making pilgrimage 65 per cent more expensive.

It may be pertinent to mention here that by withdrawing the subsidy, the government had increased the expenses by Rs 1,76,000 for each pilgrim, whereas the overall pilgrimage would cost Rs 4,56,000.

Earlier, the federal cabinet had approved its first Hajj Policy on January 30.

Under the new Hajj Policy, over 1, 84,000 Pakistanis would perform the annual ritual of Hajj this year, with a 60 per cent quota reserved for the government-sponsored Hajj scheme and remaining 40 per cent for those travelling through private hajj tour operators.

In a major policy change, the cabinet withdrew the subsidy in the government-sponsored Hajj scheme.

This decision skyrocketing costs for Hajj drew scathing criticism at the houses of the parliament as well as in the public domain.