THE federal cabinet, while approving the Haj Policy 2025, has directed the Ministry of Religious Affairs to prioritise individuals who will be performing Haj for the first time and were unsuccessful in last year’s balloting. Its meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was informed that Pakistan’s Haj quota for the upcoming pilgrimage will be 179,210, equally divided between the government’s regular and private schemes.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs has done well by getting the policy approved at this early stage as this would make it easier to devise arrangements in a satisfactory manner. However, the most important element of any policy i.e. the Haj expenses, is missing from the policy and therefore, one cannot say for sure whether the proposed policy is fair and transparent. Haj expenses have gone up tremendously during the last few years and as a result it has become next to impossible for an ordinary soul to fulfil his/her ambition of discharging this religious obligation. As the exchange rate has somewhat stabilized and commodity prices are also coming down globally, the overall charges should come down. The Ministry works hard to ensure best of the arrangements but complaints about distance of buildings from Haram both in Makkah Mukarramah and Madina Munawwara persist besides poor transport arrangements. The Ministry also needs to devise a foolproof mechanism to oversee operations of the private sector which charges exorbitantly but matching facilities are not provided.
