Ministry of Religious Affairs will start receiving Hajj applications from April 20 and the policy of first come first serve will be continued this year also, spokesman Hafiz Sher Ali said Wednesday. Talking to APP, he said the Hajj expenditures are likely to increase this year due to inflation, increase in buildings rent as compared to previous year, appreciation in rate of dollar, riyal and hike in petroleum prices.
Hajj fares have already been finalised. The new fare for government hajj scheme would be Rs 73,000 from Quetta, Karachi. And Rs 85,000 would be charged from Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony with Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) would be held in this regard on April 15, he added. The draft of Hajj policy would be presented before the cabinet soon for approval.
He said, as many as 179210 lucky persons would perform Hajj this year. Half of them would perform Hajj under the Government scheme while the rest under private scheme. The intending pilgrims have been divided into Green, Blue and White category.
The intending pilgrims, who pay 7500 riyals, would be provided residential facilities within 900 meters of Haram Sharif and they would be placed in the Blue category. The Green category pilgrims would be provided residential facilities from 900 to 2000 meters (from Haram Sharif) in 5000 riyals. White category pilgrims would be provided residences from over 2000 meters from Haram Sharif in 3600 riyals. Responding to a question he said the quota of parliamentarians and others for sending choicest persons to Hajj would not be restored. Machine readable passport, Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) have been declared mandatory this year also. Hajj 2012 is likely on October 26.