Hajj on visit visa: Religious affairs ministry to question travel operator

Officials have asked affected pilgrims to provide evidence against firm’s owner

RAWALPINDI: The Religious Affairs Ministry has reportedly launched a probe into the case of 150 pilgrims who were sent to Saudi Arabia on visit visas to perform Hajj, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Senior officials at the ministry, requesting anonymity, said notice had been taken of a news report published in The Express Tribune on September 21 that a Hajj operator, Air World Travels and Tours, sent pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on wrong visas.

Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, one of the pilgrims who had travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj on visas arranged by Air World, had said he and his wife performed their pilgrimage while constantly fearing arrest.

Performing Hajj on a visit visa is illegal in Saudi Arabia and violators can be detained.

An official at the ministry informed The Express Tribune that no Hajj operator or service provider called Air World was registered with the ministry. Another official stated that if the pilgrims had not been issued proper Hajj visas, their records would not be reflected in the Pakistan Hajj Mission record as pilgrims. Mughal has now been asked by the officials to visit the ministry’s offices today (Friday) to provide evidences against Air World’s owner Attiqur Rehman. A second pilgrim who had travelled through Air World has also been approached.

The official added that the ministry would collect all available evidence and trace Rehman and take appropriate action. Mughal, 60, told The Express Tribune that he and his wife had paid Air World Rs425,000 each for Hajj. It was not till they had boarded a flight to Madina on July 30 that they learnt from other fellow passengers that they were travelling on visit visas instead of Hajj visas.

After returning to Pakistan last week on September 15, Mughal said he intended to take legal action against the tour operator. However, a senior official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Rawalpindi told The Express Tribune that under the law, no legal action can be taken against an operator who sent pilgrims for Hajj on a visit visa.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2016.