Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, said that the government had accomplished all the Hajj (Holy pilgrimate to the city of Makkah) arrangements.

This year a reduction of Rs 29,000 had been made in the Hajj package according to Fiqh.The remaining money would be returned to each Haji (Pilgrim). While talking to Daily Times he said that this year , there was not any Hajj quota including the prime minister, the politicians, the bureaucrats and the judges .

The training of the pilgrims was under way on the level of tehsils and districts throughout the country. The preparations for vaccination of the pilgrims before the Hajj flight operation was also completed For the first time in the country’s history, the ministry had received applications in excess of the limit. In 2012, some 5000 less applications were received while in 2013 about 1000 less applications were received.

This year the residence was arranged at the centre near Madina for all the Pakistani pilgrims. In the previous years, Pakistani pilgrims used to stay at sites far away from Madina, due to which they had to face many problems .

This year a bracelet would be provided to all the Pakistani pilgrims, which would have the full data of the concerned person. It would be linked with the NADRA database as well as the Saudi government . In case of any untoward incident or the death of any Haji , his full detail would be available in the computer when this bracelet would be attached to it.

The pilgrims belonging to the Northern Areas, Islamabad and Peshawar would have to pay Rs 271,000 whereas the pilgrims hailing from Karachi, Sukkar, Quetta and the southern parts of the country would have to pay Rs 261,000. The ministry has removed the policy of first come , first serve and selected the pilgrims through balloting.

He said that there was no truth in the news regarding the removing of the Chairman, Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneebur-Rehman. However, a legislation would be made in this regard in which the specified duration of time for the chairman and the members would be fixed. “The Hajj flights would commence from August 4 . The ministry has made an agreement with four airlines: the PIA, Saudi Airlines, Shaheen Airlines and Air Blue”, Yousaf added.

He said that in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision the official and private quota has been divided equally which was at a ratio of 60 and 40 earlier.

He said that half of the pilgrims would travel through Jeddah Airport and the remaining 50 per cent would use Madina Airport . All the flights from Pakistan during the Hajj operation would be direct flights. Replying to a question regarding the ban imposed on Iranian pilgrims by Saudi Arabia , he said that the government of KSA had some apprehensions on the conditions laid down by Iran due to which this year , the people of Iran would not perform Hajj.