In what seemed to be the general public’s trust in transparency, the intending pilgrims for the year 2011 showed an overwhelming response by submitting around 90,000 applications under the government haj scheme well before the May 10 deadline, thus forcing the designated bank branches to shut the counters. “The Ministry of Religious Affairs has written to the designated bank branches to wind up the operation for receiving haj applications under the government scheme as it has already achieved the required number of applicants within 13 days against the stipulated time of 25 days, Religious Affairs Secretary Shaukat Hayat Durrani told Pakistan Today on Friday.
He linked the overwhelming public response with the first come, first serve basis, adding that transparency was guaranteed in the process. He said during the previous years, the ministry had to repeatedly extend the deadline for submitting the haj applications due to “lethargic” response from the applicants. “Around 84,000 were received by Thursday evening and I hope Friday would take it close to 90,000, the quota under the government haj scheme,” he said. Of the total quota of 179,256 pilgrims from Pakistan this year, 50 percent would be allocated to the government haj scheme and 50 percent to private scheme. Last year, around 160,000 pilgrims performed haj under both the government and private schemes.
Banks had started receiving haj applications on April 15, almost six months before the commencement of pre-haj flight operation. Haj Group Organisers would start receiving haj applications from the next week. Durrani said the congratulation letters were being dispatched to the applicants who have been declared successful under the first come first serve formula. He said the ministry had so far collected around 80,000 original applications from 4,600 banks from across the country, adding that the remaining would be collected within a due course of time. Unsuccessful applicants for haj 2010 would be considered approved for haj 2011 if they had not withdrawn the dues, subject to the condition that they have applied afresh for haj 2011.
The most striking part of the haj policy 2011 is that the government had decided to introduce two varying accommodation categories for its pilgrims – “Green” and “White” – divided in terms of rent and distance from Haram Sharif. 15 percent of the total seats under the government scheme would be reserved for following categories of applicants: hardships cases, broken family and substitution cases, pilgrims recommended and fully funded by charitable or reputable organisations such as the Shaikh Rashid bin Said Al Maktoum Haj Foundation sponsored by the UAE, employees of PTC, NTC, PTA, Kahuta Research Laboratories, OGDC, Hamdard Foundation, or those recommended by the Ministry of Labour and Manpower.
