Banks to accept Hajj applications from March 16 to 31

Minister says balloting to be held on April 5

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for Religious Affairs Mufti Abdul Shakoor on Friday said that 179,210 Pakistani pilgrims would perform Hajj this year while blaming high cost on due to high prices in the kingdom as well as the deprecation of the Pakistani rupee.

The minister made the remarks while announcing the Hajj Policy 2023 at a news conference and said that the applications can be submitted in 14 designated banks from March 16 to March 31.

The minister said Hajj balloting would be held on April 5 as per the schedule. "According to the financial breakup, the estimated cost of Hajj from the northern region (Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Faisalabad, Rahim Yar Khan, Sialkot) is Rs1,175,000, while for the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme (northern region) is approximately $4,325."

The estimated cost of Hajj from southern region (Karachi, Quetta, Sukkur) was Rs1,165,000 while for the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme (southern region) was approximately $4,285, he added.

The minister assured that in case of savings from the above-mentioned Hajj package, it would be refunded to the pilgrims through the bank accounts provided by them, adding that the applicants of the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme having no bank accounts, would be provided money in cash.

He said this time, global inflation had increased the cost of facilities in Pakistan as well as in Saudi Arabia. Apart from this, the fall in the value of Pakistani rupee had a significant impact on the Hajj package.

Abdul Shakoor said last year, Pakistani pilgrims were not able to get train facilities, but this year, they could avail of the train facility in Mina, Muzdalifah and Arafat. However, the pilgrims would have to bear the cost of this facility, he maintained.

Shedding light on the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme, the minister said it was introduced for overseas Pakistanis this year and it would help generate $194 million while the ministry needed a total of $284 million.

The Ministry of Finance had pledged to provide the remaining approximately $90 million for the smooth functioning of the Hajj operation, he added.

He said as per quota, 179,210 people would perform Hajj this year, adding that this quota would be divided between the public and private Hajj schemes with a ratio of 50 per cent each, respectively.

He further said 50 per cent quota of public and private Hajj schemes, i.e., 44,802 seats in each scheme were reserved for the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme.

He said under Sponsorship Hajj Scheme, a special facility was given to those Hajj pilgrims who were seeking foreign exchange from abroad in the specific dollar account of the ministry.

"Overseas Pakistanis will be exempted from the balloting process due to the remittance of the allocated dollars in this account for themselves or their relatives in Pakistan. Deposit of dollars from Pakistan is not allowed," he added.

Abdul Shakoor said the quota of Sponsorship Hajj Scheme would be provided on 'first come, first served' basis which would be determined by the time and date of depositing the Hajj form in the bank.

The registration for the Sponsorship Hajj Scheme would be stopped once the specified quota was completed, he added.

He said there was no age limit for Pakistani pilgrims this year as Saudi Arabia had removed the upper age limit of 65 years.