The pre-Haj operation to airlift about 150,000 Pakistani pilgrims to Saudi Arabia will be completed with departure of last Haj flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), PK-1761 carrying 270 pilgrims for Jeddah here on Friday night. This was stated by the Minister for Religious Affairs Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq while talking to journalists at Haji Camp here on Thursday.
He said the pre-Haj operation had started from December 15 last.
The Minister said 150,000 Haj pilgrims were airlifted to Saudi Arabia by 496 special Haj flights including 73 connecting flights from Faisalabad, Sukkur and Multan.
Giving the detail of flights, he said 73 flights were operated from the Federal Capital Islamabad, 75 from Peshawar, 84 from Lahore, 122 from Karachi, 36 from Quetta, 70 from Multan, 6 from Sukkur and 30 from Faisalabad.
He told, from next year, direct flights would be operated from Multan, Sukkur and Faisalabad to facilitate the pilgrims.
About 97,000 people would perform Haj under the government scheme while 53,000 through the private tour operators, he added. Ijaz-ul-Haq said the pilgrims under government scheme would stay in Saudi Arabia for around 40 days.
The Minister further said all the applicants who were not selected during Haj ballot would be given preference for the next year's Haj.
Pakistan, the minister informed, has extended all possible facilities to those Chinese pilgrims who arrived here for onward journey to Saudi Arabia for Haj-2005.
"We made special arrangements for them including free accommodation at Haji Camp and free vaccination of meningitis," he added. He added that more than 500 Chinese pilgrims would be airlifted to Saudi Arabia by Saudi Airlines on January 15.
To a question if the building to house Pakistani pilgrims have been arranged near to Harmain-es-Sharifain, he said there were some complaints about accommodation which had been resolved.
He said the monitoring cell had been set up to monitor performance of private Haj organisers.
The Khuddamul Hujjaj had already reached Saudi Arabia and were facilitating the Pakistani pilgrims right from the airport to the buildings hired for them in Makkah and Madina.
"Our Haj Medical Mission has set up hospitals and dispensaries both at Makkah and Madina to provide medical treatment to our pilgrims," he added.