Religious affairs ministry refunding each Pakistan pilgrim SR 250 for Mina mismanagement

Ministry officials say 10.75 million Saudi riyals paid to 43,000 Pakistani pilgrims so far

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs has been refunding the Pakistani pilgrims who had paid for using trains from Mina but were not provided the facility while performing Hajj under the government scheme this year.

As many as 58,000 pilgrims were left without the facility of trains despite having pre-purchased tickets. In a bid to placate them, the ministry has decided to pay each pilgrim 250 Saudi riyals (SR). So far an amount of 10.75 million riyals has been returned to 43,000 pilgrims.

According to the ministry, many of the pilgrims had already received the amount while they were still in Saudi Arabia and that the remaining will receive the amount soon.



 

The move came after many pilgrims protested that despite purchasing train tickets, they had to walk for 20 to 25 kilometres from Mina under the scorching sun. Many of the pilgrims fell ill and fainted while the elderly and disabled suffered the most from the lack of facilities.

The ministry had initially claimed that they were providing the best accommodation and transport facilities to those availing the government Hajj scheme 2017 but their claims were short-lived as people thronged to the ministry’s official Facebook account to register their complaints. The ministry also saw a multitude of messages on their official WhatsApp number.

In their next move, the ministry constantly shifted the blame to the Saudi government, citing them to be the cause of the mismanagement at Mina. However, the Saudi embassy rejected the allegations, revealing that it was indeed the ministry that was responsible for the provision of facilities.