The Secretary, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Vakil Ahmed Khan has said that there would not be any balloting to select pilgrims under the government scheme this year. The applications would be invited through designated branches of banks on first come first serve basis, he said in an interview.
He said that the banks are likely to start receiving applications for Haj-2008 under government scheme from the second week of the next month. Talking about cost of the Haj, he said the expenses would be high this year owing to devaluation of rupee, high rent of buildings in Saudi Arabia and increased airline fares.
'The rupee is going down against dollar and riyal while airfares have been increased by airlines due to escalating petroleum prices in the international market', he added.
The Secretary pointed out that last year, the PIA charged Rs46, 000 per person as airfare while per barrel cost of crude oil was at $70. 'The price of crude oil is likely to touch $150 per barrel at the time when pilgrims start leaving for Haj," he added.
Khan also maintained that about 1,800 buildings have been demolished around the Haram in Shamia and Ghaza areas of Makkah Al Mukarrama resulting considerable rise in the building rent.
Furthermore, the Ministry has so far arranged buildings to accommodate 25,000 pilgrims. 'We are obtaining more buildings as early as possible to house all pilgrims to be sent under government scheme', he added.
Moreover, it would not be possible this year to accommodate all pilgrims within 1000 meters around Haram. Referring to the quota, he said that about 165,000 Pakistani pilgrims would perform Haj this year.
While discussing complaints against private Haj tour operators, he said to receive 73 complaints against 53 private Haj tour operators after the last Haj'. Further, he said the complaints were being scrutinised and assured that as many as 595 private Haj organisers were selected by the Ministry to send pilgrims under the private scheme. He maintained that a monitoring team comprising 40 officials selected from different ministries and organisations were deployed to address complaints and problems faced by the pilgrims.
'We are still examining the possibility of sending the pilgrims via sea routs and if approved by the Cabinet, tenders will be invited from international firms to ferry our pilgrims through ships', he added. To a question about allocation of space in Mina, he said, 'We have requested the Moassasah South Asia to allocate appropriate space to the Pakistani pilgrims in Mina and play a role in collaboration with the Saudi Government to persuade the owners of buildings in fixing a reasonable rent'.