The designated branches of banks have refunded Rs 470 million to all those applicants who were not selected in ballots for regular and open schemes for Haj-2004.
Joint Secretary (Haj), Ministry of Religious Affairs. A.R. Abid said on Tuesday that all banks were advised to refund Haj dues soon after ballots for regular and open Haj schemes held on October 23 and October 29, last year, respectively.
He said Haj dues had been received at more than 2,906 branches of seven designated banks namely NBP, HBL, MCB, ABL, Bank of Punjab and Khyber Bank.
About 177,664 applicants had deposited Haj dues at these banks out of which 130,000 applicants were selected in the ballot to perform Haj.
The remaining 47,664 unsuccessful applicants claimed refund of the dues deposited by them.
The Joint Secretary said the Ministry had advised the designated banks to refund Haj dues without any delay.
He, however, said if any applicant has not applied for refund, he may contact the bank in which he had deposited the dues.
Banks started receiving applications under both regular and open schemes for Haj-2004 from August 1 and September 1 respectively.
He said the intending pilgrims from Karachi and Quetta paid Rs 94,612 as Haj dues while those who used other gateways deposited Rs 98,902.
To a question, he said the pre-Haj operation to airlift about 130,000 Pakistani pilgrims to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Haj, has been completed on January 26.
The Joint Secretary said last special Haj flight PK 1361 left Lahore for Jeddah carrying the last batch of pilgrims to the holy land.
The post-Haj operation will begin from February 5, ending on March 6 he added.
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