KARACHI Dec 29 (TNS): Pasban Public Issues Committee Chairman Abubakar Usman welcoming the new Hajj Policy has demanded of the government to give more eases and facilities to the Hujjaj.
In a statement on Friday, he said we warmly welcome the new Hajj policy but also want to divert the attention of the government and ministry for Hajj towards some flaws so that they could also be addressed on priority. He said further increase in the government quota would facilitate common man. He demanded that in the next policy of Hajj 2019 whole Hajj quota should be placed under the government schemes so that citizens could avail the blessing of Hajj in a hassle-free and cost-effective manner. He said this full government quota should be divided into 75 percent normal quota and remaining 25precent in VIP package.
He said presently the traders of Hajj sell Hajj their private schemes to people at very high rates, while the government by increasing facilities of normal government Hajj quota could offer the facilities at par with the private schemes but on much lower rates. He said the Hajj is a holy religious obligation and its commercialization and trade by private businessmen should be stopped for good. He said the Hajj-e-Badel facilities should be made available under the government schemes on behalf of the disabled persons or for the Sawab of the deceased.
He said that in past the government used to offer Hajj scheme for children below ages of two years for a sum of Rs10290 and this feature is omitted in the Hajj scheme of 2017. He demanded that Hajj facilities for children below two years should be resumed at the fee of Rs10290 so that the families going to Hajj could be better facilitated.
He said the present limitation of only 20 day stay for the Hujjaj is too short, as the Hujjaj want to spend more time in the holy land so that this limit should be made at least 40-42 days. He said that the agreement of our government with the Saudi government would be finalized in February 2018 so our government has ample time to negotiate and increase the stay of Hujjaj to 40-42 days and also to announce the package for children accompanying their parents for Hajj.
He said every year ample time is given to the Hujjaj to arrange fee but now the date of January 15, 2018 is given as deadline for depositing Hajj fees in banks while last year this deadline was April. He demanded that the last date of depositing Hajj fees to banks should be extended to April so that people could easily manage and deposit their fees.
