People's confidence increases over government scheme hajj, Senate body told

ISLAMABAD: The people's confidence over government scheme hajj has increased manifold since taking over reins of government by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony was told Wednesday.

Briefing the committee here on Wednesday the officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony told the committee that 5,000 less applications from total available seats of government hajj scheme were received in the year 2012.

The number of applications were persistently increased since 2013. And this year 374,557 applications were received for Government Hajj Scheme against the quota of 120,000.

The meeting was told that the government has retained the hajj expenses of Rs 270,000 and Rs 280,000 despite per haji increase of Rs 45,000 in government scheme. Government has decided to pay the additional amount.

Meeting was told that 10,000 seats have been reserved in the government hajj scheme for haji of over 80 years age and 12,235 applicants have been selected this year from those, who had failed to wind berth in government hajj scheme in consecutive last three years.

The meeting, chaired by Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was attended by Raja Muhammad Zafar ul Haq, Professor Sajid Mir, Siraj ul Haq, Abida Muhammad Azeem and Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousaf and high ranking officials of the ministry.