As pilgrims leave for Saudi Arabia under 'Road to Makkah' project
ISLAMABAD: One of the projects that were agreed upon between Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) and Prime Minister Imran Khan, during MBS’s visit to Islamabad was the Road to Makkah project. The project was intended to assist Pakistani pilgrims during the Hajj season. Pakistan sends the second highest number of pilgrims for the annual event, and an estimated 189,210 will perform Hajj this year. Given the large number of passengers that arrive at the Jeddah and Madina airports, the Saudi government decided to provide pre-clearance to pilgrims of some countries. Pakistan was included in this, and pilgrims travelling from the Islamabad airport will clear Saudi immigration and customs at Islamabad only. Saudi Arabia sent its immigration officers last week, and Hajj departures started this past Thursday. Twenty thousand pilgrims are estimated to benefit from this.
This initiative was the need of the hour, as pilgrims have to wait for over ten hours at Saudi airports to clear immigration, due to the rush. Many hailing from the rural areas face a lot of difficulty due to language barriers as well. Pilgrims will be saving their time and energy in this way this, and Saudi airports will be able to manage the incoming traffic better. I hope this initiative is introduced at all Pakistani airports, in order to assist all the pilgrims departing from here. It would be even more convenient if pilgrims are able to avail this service during the Ramazan season as well. Let’s hope the Saudi government decides to make this a permanent feature for Pakistani pilgrims.
Huda Javed
Published in The Express Tribune, July 7th, 2019.
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