Govt announces names of successful applicants in Hajj balloting

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Religious Affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, on Tuesday announced names of 112,526 successful applicants who will perform Hajj under the government scheme this year.

Speaking at a press conference, Qadri announced that a man named Waseem Ahmed from Karachi was the first successful applicant in the balloting. The minister said all the applicants whose names came out in the balloting would be informed through an SMS within three to four hours today.

Qadri said a number of 112,526 people will perform Hajj under the government scheme while 71,684 people will go for Hajj under private Hajj scheme. In total, 184,210 people will perform Hajj from Pakistan this year.

He said the intending pilgrims who have been applying for Hajj for the last three years will be allowed to perform Hajj without balloting. Similarly, the pilgrims above eighty years of age will also be allowed for Hajj without balloting.

According to the minister, the highest number of applications was received from Punjab which are; 108,006. The government received 49,343 applications from Sindh, 40,752 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10,258 from Balochistan.

The minister added that 2,316 applications were received from Azad Kashmir, 4,314 from tribal districts of KP and 2,422 from Gilgit-Baltistan.

This year, 184,210 Pakistanis will perform Hajj of which 107,526 will perform the annual pilgrimage under the government scheme and 71,684 will under private schemes.

He stated that the Saudi foreign minister had promised additional 16,000 quota for Pakistan. He said the government would also give new quota of 5,000 to private Hajj operators. According to the 2019 Hajj policy, intending pilgrims had to pay Rs 436,975.

Noorul Haq Qadri said a revolutionary step this year is that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman had announced to include Pakistani Hujjaj in the Road to Mecca programme, under which the pilgrims will be provided Customs Clearance and Immigration facility at Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar airports.