Following the successful completion of the recent Haj operation, the Ministry of Religious Affairs is working on to ensure improved arrangements aimed at providing maximum facilities to intending pilgrims for the Haj-2009, official sources said here on Wednesday.
"Various new proposals are under consideration to incorporate in the new Haj policy for providing maximum facilities to the intending pilgrims during their stay in Saudi Arabia, which will be announced in May," they told APP. The draft of the policy is being finalised in consultation with all the stakeholders and will soon be sent to the Federal Cabinet for approval.
About the proposals, they informed, if approved, all the unsuccessful applicants would be selected for Haj without balloting in the next year if they do not withdraw their Haj expenditure from banks. The amount could be used to hire buildings to accommodate pilgrims in Makkah and Madina timely and with good terms and conditions as the pilgrims had to face some difficulties regarding accommodations and travelling during the recently concluded Haj.
The accommodation problem was mainly owing to non-availability of buildings near Haram as most of them had been demolished by the Saudi authorities. Secondly, there was a considerable delay in finalising arrangements including late start of inviting Haj applications.
About travelling problems, they informed that about 400 buses hired for Pakistani pilgrims were not provided by the contractors that multiplied the hardships. However, a shuttle bus service was available to take Pakistani pilgrims to Mina and bring them back to Makkah but it used to take much time. In the recently concluded Haj, the government had sent 164,647 pilgrims to the Holy land to perform their religious obligation under the government and private schemes.
About 978 seasonal staff including medical mission, Khuddam-ul-Hujjaj and Local Khuddam were deployed at Jeddah, Makkah and Madina to facilitate pilgrims. Besides, hospital and dispensaries were set up to provide medical facilities to Pakistani pilgrims in Makkah, while main medical mission was located at Pakistan House, near Haram with a capacity of 30 beds.
About complaints of Hujjaj, they were of the view that the Complaint Disposal Cell (CDC) of the ministry has started compiling complaints against such private Haj operators who showed negligence in providing facilities to pilgrims and violated their agreements.
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