EDITORIAL: It’s one of those unfortunate headlines that shouldn’t exist in a functioning state. That the government of Pakistan has no record of 40,000 citizens who travelled to Iran, Iraq and Syria for religious pilgrimage but never returned, defies logic and responsibility in equal measure.
Yet that is exactly what the Minister for Religious Affairs, Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, confirmed this week. The number is staggering; the implications are possibly worse.
There is no ambiguity here. For decades, the Zaireen circuit has operated in a grey zone – organised informally, travelled in unregulated groups, and left entirely outside the purview of state monitoring. In any other country, this would be considered a national security lapse. In Pakistan, it became a recurring feature of religious travel.
Until now.
To its credit, the government has finally acted. And this time, the move to introduce a centralised regulatory framework for Zaireen travel is not only welcome — it’s long overdue. With over 1,400 companies applying to register under the newly formalized Zaireen Group Organiser (ZGO) scheme, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is clearly signalling that the era of unofficial operators is coming to an end. It must.
This is not just about compliance for the sake of bureaucracy. The lack of a formal structure has had very real consequences. Iran, Iraq and Syria have previously raised these concerns with Islamabad. Complaints have ranged from security lapses to group coordination failures, with some Zaireen allegedly overstaying or vanishing into undocumented networks. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand how this vacuum could be exploited by non-state actors – or how easily it could trigger diplomatic tensions in an already sensitive region.
There’s also the issue of safety and dignity for the pilgrims themselves. In the absence of proper record-keeping or travel oversight, Zaireen have long been vulnerable to exploitation. Without structured support systems, they risk falling prey to fraudulent guides, logistical failures, or worse – vanishing without a trace in unfamiliar territory. A standardised, accountable framework ensures their welfare is not left to chance.
Religious pilgrimage is the right of all citizens, individuals and groups alike, just as it is the duty of the government to ensure their safety, dignity, and freedom. This new system is a step in the right direction, one that aims to facilitate, streamline, and professionalise every aspect of the process.
For the state, regulation means visibility. For the pilgrims, it means protection. For foreign governments, it signals seriousness. There is little here to oppose, except the inertia of those who benefited from the disorder.
And let us not ignore the political undertone. The fact that this system is only now being enforced, after years of well-documented irregularities, also raises questions about administrative apathy; but as the saying goes, better late than never.
The federal cabinet’s approval of the ZGO framework must now be matched by efficient implementation, strict oversight, and clear punitive action against non-compliance. The ministry must also resist the inevitable pressure that will follow, especially from unregistered players who will claim to be excluded unfairly. There is nothing unfair about rules applied equally.
If 40,000 untracked citizens aren’t enough to jolt a system into reform, nothing will be. Fortunately, the wake-up call has been answered. What matters now is that the commitment to regulation doesn’t end at a press conference.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025