A few months ago, the commercial street where I have an apartment, acquired a travel agency, a first. Soon there are bound to be more travel agencies because small businessmen continuously switch to a new venture that will make money. The travel agency replaces one of the dozen estate agencies that went bust when property prices crashed three years ago.
The state of commercial instability is reflected on our street where one shop has served several business ventures. Except for a couple of tailors, mini marts and boutiques, a beauty saloon and the roti-maker of nanbai, none of the fifty or so shops on the street has had the same business for more than a year.
There were restaurants, a health center, a dentist, samosa and sweetmeat shop, auto garages, a fortune teller's place (forced to close down because it was near the mosque) which lasted only a month, a shop selling readymade school uniforms, shoes and satchels, a furniture shop, a fancy lighting shop, a party caterer and decorator's shop, a photocopier and stationary outlet and a dozen estate agencies out of which three remain. There are three bank's branches, which hardly have business. They survive simply as statistics so that the banks can claim they have so many branches all over the city, in every commercial area. There was a cute little shop selling knack-knacks and a florist. An interior decorator and three boutiques, which did not last long.
And now the trend will be for travel agencies. I dread their proliferation because, like the first travel agency, they will be catering to the hottest travel business: for Hajj and Umra. Pakistan is the only country in the world where travel agents cater exclusively to travellers to Makkah and Madina. Several travel agencies that used to cater to holiday travel for fun and sightseeing now deal exclusively with pilgrimage travel.
I dread them because our street is already being used, and misused, by people who think they can do anything they please in the name of religion. There is a large mosque with sixteen loudspeakers that not only broadcast the call to prayer but also bombard us daily with a dose of the most orthodox harangues. No pious soul is concerned about noise pollution. If one were to complain, they would say we are unbelievers who dare to call the Word of God noise pollution.
There is also a bookshop that sells religious books, tapes, videos and posters of the holy cities. There is an entire building devoted to teaching the Holy Qura'n and Sharia to women. It is rare that the cars of the students are parked properly. Even when there is a driver he refuses to budge when told he is double parked. A large part of the greenbelt before the mosque has no grass although several attempts have been made by the gardeners to grow it.
This is because the devotees use it as a car park, except on Fridays when it is used to take the spillover of devotees from the three storey mosque. On Sundays, between Maghrib and Isha prayers (evening and night prayers) at least a thousand, people come from all over Karachi to listen to the lecture of a very popular Alim. Area residents cannot enter or take their cars out of the lanes because the religious enthusiasts don't mind blocking the entry with their vehicles. Its like an invasion of the mohalla on Sundays.
The pioneer travel agency opened in response to the mosque's latest service, which is training intending pilgrims. For three months before the Hajj intending pilgrims come here to learn not only about the rituals but about bed and board and travel facilities in Makkah-Madina and how to conduct themselves at the customs in Jeddah.
Besides Hajj, Umra has become a very popular lesser pilgrimage that is undertaken any time of the year. I know people who boast they go every year, or have been to the holy cities twenty and thirty times in ten years. No wonder travel agencies catering exclusively to pilgrimage is such a profitable type of new business.
The most popular tourism, (if one may call pilgrimage by that word) is for Hajj and Umra. Many of the travel agencies are run by people who are tour operators, too. Hajj tour operators were few just five years ago have mushroomed because over the years the government has been gradually relived itself of the financial burden of subsidising pilgrimage. This year only twenty percent of intending pilgrims will avail government-sponsorship. The rest will have to depend on the Hajj tour operators.
So by the time the Hajj season begins, there will be a massive mushroom growth of travel agencies and tour operators with names like Makkah Travels and Makkah Tours. Mark my words.
Already there is public outcry from intending pilgrims who complain that the new Hajj policy of the Ministry of Religious Affairs will make the pilgrimage too costly. Many intending pilgrims have lost hope that they will be able to go this year.
The track record of the pilgrimage tour operators is by and large very poor. They are known to charge a hefty sum for services they fail to provide. There have been complaints that living accommodation in Makkah and Muzdalfa, as well as the food is not what they, were told they would get. But once in Makkah pilgrims do not complain during the pilgrimage. They believe they must put up with the travails. It is when they return home that they show their anger, but by then it is too late. The tour operators have pocketed their money and do not care about the complaints.
Private tour operators charge anything from three times to six times as much as the pilgrimage would have cost a person had he or she the benefit of government sponsorship.
The lowest price is said to be two lakh rupees, which includes air fare, food, accommodation and transport between Makkah and Arafat. It does not include transport, food or accommodation for Madina. Even at that so-called low price food served is not more than roti and lentils; as for transport, it is chancy.
Bus drivers are usually not locals but brought in from other countries. It is not unusual for them to abandon the vehicle so that the passengers have to trek the remainder of the journey.
When pilgrimage tours first started the Ministry of Religious Affairs took serious note of exploitation of pilgrims. Some outfits were even banned. But the exercise turned out to be temporary. Who knows why the culprits were allowed to go scot-free? Your guess is as good as mine. All one can say is that perhaps the ministry members may be sleeping partners in travel agencies and tour operations. After all, profiting from religion is the greatest business these days.