Federal cabinet approves Hajj policy

Govt to send pilgrims on first-come, first-served basis.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal cabinet approved on Wednesday the next year’s Hajj policy, besides promising not to repeat the previous year’s scandalous mismanagement it announced several steps to make the process more transparent and credible.

The most significant measure, aimed at repairing lost credibility, was a decision to entertain application by intended pilgrims on first-come, first-serve basis, instead of highly-secretive balloting system.

As many as 180,000 pilgrims would be able to perform pilgrimage this year, Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah announced at a press conference.

The pilgrims would proceed to Saudi Arabia under schemes run by the government and the private sector. The ministry of religious affairs would receive applications between April 15 and May 10. He said applicants, who had been unsuccessful last year’s balloting, would be declared successful if they had not withdrawn their deposited money.

He said the ministry was launching a pilgrim protection scheme under which each Haji would be required to contribute Rs400 non-refundable premium.  He said the policy had been finalised in consultation with the Saudi government, which gave additional quota of 20,000 pilgrims, increasing it from 158,000 to 179,254.

The minister said this year, machine readable passports (MRPs) would be mandatory for intending pilgrims. The minister said that PIA had agreed to charge airfare at the rate of Rs72,000 for south zone and Rs84,000  for north zone.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th, 2011.