ISLAMABAD – The Government Hajj Scheme expenditures have become dearer byRs156,975 owing to various reasons including increase in transport anddevaluation of rupee, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith HarmonySecretary Mushtaq Ahmed Friday said.Briefing Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and InterfaithHarmony, chaired by Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, he said this yearGovernment Hajj Scheme’s proposed package would be Rs436,975 for Northernand Rs426,975 for Southern regions of the country. A Haji would have to payadditional Rs19,451 for Qurbani.He said the proposed hajj package has been sent to federal cabinet forapproval which has the authority to reduce the hajj package.He said airfares will be Rs100,000 for north and Rs110,000 for south ascomparing to last year’s Rs 93,000 and 84,000 for northern and southernregions respectively.The committee directed the ministry to negotiate with airlines to reduceairfare. Ministry was also directed to explore possibilities oftransporting Hujjaj to Saudi Arabia through normal commercial flights toreduce cost as chartered flights were comparatively expensive.He said 184,210 Pakistanis would perform Hajj this year including theadditional quota of 5,000 granted by Saudi government. The additional quotaand withdrawn quota of black listed HGOs would be distributed among newenlisted Hajj Group Organisers (HGOs). The overall quota of 800 enlistedHGOs would be 40 percent of total hajj quota allocated to Pakistan.Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri directed the ministry to bound HGOs to keeptheir packages at lowest minimum level as some HGOs were offering packagesup to Rs 600,000 to Rs1.6 million per private Haji.Secretary assured the committee to himself monitoring private Hajjpackages.Yousaf Badeni asked the ministry to deploy one staffer with each HGOs forstrict monitoring.Secretary said in new Hajj Policy the hardship quota was being reduced from2 percent to 1.5 percent. An additional quota of 10,000 was being reservedto accommodate Hajj aspirants, who failed to secure a berth in last threeconsecutive attempts.Another 10,000 quota was being reserved to accommodate octogenarian Hajjaspirants without any balloting. Likewise another quota of 500 would bereserved by labourers or low paid employees of companies registered withEmployees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI).The secretary said various new initiatives have been introduced in theproposed new Hajj Policy including road to Makkah project, E-Visa, UniformBaggage access of Pakistan, temporary Haji camp at Gilgit to facilitatelocal Hujjaj. Eitemad would conduct bio-metric of intending pilgrims atGwadar, Skardu, Muzaffarabad.The committee directed to include in the list Khuzdar and Chitral tofacilities Hujjaj.He said the ministry has propose to Saudi authorities to authorize four orfive more companies to conduct bio metric verifications of Hujjaj.Currently Eitemad has monopoly over bio metric verification.Muhammad Yousaf Badini asked the ministry to give equal share of Hajjmuavineed to Balochistan.The committee directed the ministry to waive off Rs2000 additional imposedon multiple Umrah performers.The secretary said the ministry has finalized a draft Hajj, Umrah ServicesManagement Bill, 2019 to regulate Umrah.
Unbelievable price hike in Government Hajj Scheme Expenditures
