Ministry of Religious Affairs has finalised the month long flight schedule of pilgrims who will perform Haj in January 2006 through the arrangements of the private group organisers, official sources told Business Recorder here on Friday.
Sources said that the first Haj flight would leave Islamabad for Jeddah on December 03, 2005 and last of 476 PIA and Saudi Airlines flights would leave Islamabad on 04 January 2006. Under the "government Haj scheme" pilgrims stay in Saudi Arabia would be around 40 days, they added.
While preparing flight schedule, sources said, efforts were made to accommodate requests of the private group organisers for particular date of flights for their groups but some of their requests could not be entertained due to non-availability of seats. They said that in order to facilitate the private sector operators, all members of a Haj organiser's group have been accommodated on a single day and in case of a bigger group, they have been allocated two days.
They said that Haj flight schedule has been issued to all concerned directorates of Haj in Pakistan as well as directorate general of Haj Jeddah for onward transmission to the respective Haj group organisers, therefore no request for any change from any group organiser would be entertained.
They said that Haj schedule has been prepared in association with PIA and Saudi Airlines and in all about 150,000 Pakistanis would perform Haj this season through private Haj organisers and the government scheme. Around 25,974 intending Hajis would go straight to Madinah Munawwarah.