RIYADH – Pakistan’s caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Aneeq Ahmed left for Saudi Arabia on Saturday to oversee and finalize the arrangements for the upcoming Hajj.
During the visit, the minister is scheduled to hold important meetings with Saudi officials and evaluate the arrangements for pilgrims besides visiting Jeddah to attend the International Hajj Conference organized by the kingdom. The minister would also discuss with the Saudi officials measures to facilitate the pilgrims from Pakistan.
The visit comes days after Pakistan conducted balloting for the pilgrims and selected over 60,000 Muslims to perform Hajj under the government scheme.
The total number of seats allocated to Pakistan for the upcoming Hajj is around 180,000 but these include the seats allocated to the private Hajj operators.
The government had initially set December 12th as the deadline which was extended till December 22nd for the regular Hajj scheme. To attract the applicants, the government had also permitted those who had performed Hajj in the last 5 years to apply for the upcoming Hajj.
The authorities have introduced the Short Hajj package for the pilgrims while the Sponsorship Scheme is also valid for this year as well.
As far as the Long Hajj is concerned, it would encompass 38-42 days with 8 days stay in Medinah and those flying from the South region i.e. Karachi, and Sukkhur would have to pay Rs 10,65,000 while those from other cities i.e. Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan, Sialkot, Faisalabad would pay Rs 10,75,000.
For Sponsorship scheme applicants, the cost is $3765 for the South Region while it is $ 3800 for the North Region for those opting for the Long Hajj package.
For the Short Hajj package, the cost for regular Hajj applicants is Rs 11,40,000 for the South region while the cost is Rs 11,50,000 for the North region; the Hajj would continue for 20-25 days under this scheme.
For the Sponsorship Scheme, the cost for Short Hajj is $ 4015 USD for the South region and $ 4050 for North region.
