Govt making efforts to enhance hajj quota

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf on Thursday said that government was making efforts with Saudi Arabia to get enhanced Hajj quota for Pakistan as per new population census.

While talking to business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said last year Pakistan’s Hajj quota was 189,210 and if agreed by Saudi Arabia, 27000 more Hajjis would get the opportunity to perform Haj.

He condemned the Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and said that it has hurt the feelings of whole Muslim Ummah and the rest of the world. He was addressing business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said a press release issued here.

Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said that work on Hajj Policy 2018 was in progress and assured that the proposals of business community for the policy would be given due consideration.

He said Saudi Embassy has been asked to ensure biometric verification centers at district level to facilitate the Umrah aspirants. He said if verification was done in designated centers, there was no need to do biometric verification at airports as it was time consuming process.

He said if India, Bangladesh and other countries have been exempted from biometric verification, then Pakistan should also be exempted from this practice. He said the facilities for Hajjis would be further improved and ensured that ICCI delegation for Hajj would be provided maximum facilitation.

Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, ICCI appreciated the efforts of the government to provide good facilities to Pakistani Hajjis due to which people were preferring to perform Hajj on government scheme.

He said the condition of biometric verification for Pakistan Umrah aspirants by Saudi Embassy has created problems for them and urged that the Ministry of Religious Affairs should play role to ease problems of Umrah aspirants on this account.

He urged that Ministry for considering giving a special Hajj package to ICCI members so that they could be facilitated in performing Hajj every year. He said ICCI was ready to provide its premises for organizing trainings and vaccinations for Islamabad-based Hajjis.

He strongly condemned the Trump’s announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and urged that the whole Muslim Ummah in coordination with other world powers should launch a strong campaign to undo Trump’s move and to foil the nefarious designs of Israel and USA.