THE announcement of Minister for Religious Affairs Senator Talha Mahmood that expenses for Hajj would be collected in US dollars and not in Pakistan rupee from next year is not a viable solution to the Hajj-related problems of the people. Addressing a post-Hajj press conference on Sunday, he lauded the Saudi Government for making ‘excellent’ arrangements for all aspects of Hajj 2023.
The Minister has taken pride in that he brought back an increased quota of over 179,000 for 2024 Hajj but failed to realize that the country could not avail its full quota for the Hajj this year because of record increase in expenses which shattered dreams of thousands to perform this religious obligation. The Minister also ignored the poor response to the move of the government to increase quota for the sponsorship scheme in view of the foreign exchange crunch. He has not explained the modus operandi of the plan to collect Hajj dues in US dollars but it is a big question mark as to how the intending pilgrims would manage foreign exchange when the government is not in a position to manage a few hundred million dollars required for the entire operation. Not all Pakistanis have their relatives abroad to get foreign exchange easily and in case it is procured from the open market, the expenses would go further high because of the manipulative nature of the forex market. On the face of it, the proposal runs contrary to the interests of the common man and therefore, one hopes it would be shot down by the Federal Cabinet when formally presented by the Ministry.
