Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi said here on Friday no Haj quota for provincial legislators is possible under the Haj policy 2008.
Addressing a press conference in provincial capital at the residence of provincial senior minister Raja Riaz Ahmed, the Federal Minister said no such plan of extending Haj quota to provincial legislators was under consideration of the ministry of religious affairs and even the federal ministers are also not happy with their respective quotas and offering the ministry to get it back.
Under Federal Haj Policy, each member of the national assembly is eligible to a quota of 10 persons for Haj but they are not happy with the quota and always turn up with complaints against the ministry.
"How the ministry can extend this facility to the provincial legislators when the central legislators are not happy with the offer," he asked to one of the Journalists who pointed out that the provincial legislators have been criticising the ministry for not offering Haj quota to them.
Regarding undue delays in transportation of intended pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, the minister said majority of the pilgrims have been taken to Saudi Arabia and only a few, in between five to 15, are yet to fly. He further clarified that delay in departure of pilgrims was due to mismanagement on the part of private tour operators and not a single pilgrim going through government scheme was delayed from scheduled departure.
According to him, Pakistan government has introduced special shuttle service for Pakistani pilgrims from their staying locations to Haram, as Pakistan mission was not able to get nearest residential buildings on rent in Mekkah this year. "Since 70 percent Pakistani pilgrims are old persons therefore, we have introduced shuttle service to facilitate them," he said.
He said high PIA fare for pilgrims were due to abnormal high oil prices world over when the ministry was negotiating with PIA and suggested PIA officials to hedge their fuel reserves for Haj period. "The oil prices were around 114 dollar per barrel and reduced gradually after hitting 147 dollar a barrel but no benefit could be passed on to pilgrims due to the hedging of PIA fuel reserves," he said.
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