Apropos the letter by Mr Khalil on the issue of Pakistan’s unfortunate Hajis, it seems to be a never-ending agony for them. There was a time when the print media and electronic media would publish news of few delays in PIA Haj flights and the matter would be taken note of at the highest level in Islamabad. PIA MD’s and other senior airline executives in the past have had their heads rolling on such negligence of duty. Nothing seems to bother these people now.
Our Hajis don’t get accommodation at Mina and even their state of Ehram could not be maintained because of lack of sanitation facilities which were not provided although they had paid for them. Out of more than 100 flights operated by PIA, just one arrives on schedule, but as far as Islamabad is concerned it is business as usual.
Our parliament, the PAC, Ministry of Defence, PM and pretty much everyone else just make the semblance of protest and constitute a committee to investigate and we all know that committees are formed to push all this dirt under the carpet. These poor Hajis don’t matter to those who rule this country or to our establishment.
For PIA which has an experience of over 50 years operating Haj schedules, mostly successfully in the past, managing another Haj operation would not have been a problem if cronysim and corrupt mediocrity were not thrust upon it by the sitting government. This airline has in the past 30 months suffered additional losses of over Rs50 billion and has been declared the worst airline in terms of flight punctuality and regularity in the world.
The Hajis from Pakistan have a choice, either not to perform pilgrimage or suffer this agony endlessly and pray to Almighty Allah to accept their pilgrimage, even if they could not observe the obligatory state of ablution while wearing the Ehram. They have to report to the Haj Terminal at Jeddah almost 20 hours before the scheduled departure which may even lengthen more.
MUZAMMIL H
Sukkur
