Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf on Sunday said that the government was actively trying to send as many pilgrims as it could for Haj, adding that 10,000 more Pakistanis have been permitted to perform the pilgrimage privately.
In January, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the annual Haj agreement, under which 179,210 Pakistani pilgrims were allowed to perform Haj, with around 90,000 people performing the pilgrimage under the government’s scheme. However, a notification from the religious affairs ministry earlier this week said that only 23,620 pilgrims would be allowed to perform Haj privately, raising questions about the fate of the remaining 67,000 pilgrims up in the air.
Talking to a private TV channel, Yousaf said that the government was trying to ensure that as many Pakistani pilgrims could perform Haj this year. “We are trying to enable as many of the 179,210 pilgrims to travel for Haj,” the minister emphasised.
Yousaf stated that after approaching Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and asking him to speak with his Saudi counterpart, an additional 10,000 Pakistanis were permitted to perform Haj privately. When pressed on the issue, Yousaf said that this was not an issue unique to Pakistan.
“This has not happened only in Pakistan, it’s happening elsewhere,” he said. Asked if those pilgrims who cannot travel are going to be refunded, Yousaf said: “According to our Haj policy, there are agreements with tour operators under which the procedure [for booking Haj] has taken place”.
Haj, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam, is performed each year by millions of Muslims worldwide. Pakistan receives one of the highest Haj quotas from Saudi Arabia.