Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has finalised pre-Hajj flights schedule for Government Hajj Scheme 2016.
An official said the ministry is likely to announce the schedule on Tuesday, according to which the Hajj flights would directly go to Madina Munawwara for the first 15 days. They would return from Jeddah.
Pilgrims landing directly at Jeddah would return home from Madina Munawwara after performing Hajj.
A total of 143,368 Pakistanis will perform the sacred religious ceremony this year including 71,684 under the government scheme and a matching number of pilgrims under a private scheme.
He said the intending pilgrims will be informed about their flight schedule, their building, Maktab number and other relevant details through SMS and letters.
The details of Hajj flights will also be available on the ministry’s website.
He urged the intending pilgrims to benefit from the ministry’s ongoing extensive training programmes as such programmes are important for performing Hajj in accordance with the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
He also urged the intending pilgrims to benefit from the Hajj training material available at the ministry’s website and its Facebook page. The first pre-Hajj flight will depart from Islamabad with around 4,000 pilgrims on August 4.
The first flight will take pilgrims to Saudi Arabia on August 4 from Islamabad while the last flight will depart on September 5.
According to the schedule, the second Hajj flight will depart on August 5 carrying around 300 pilgrims to Jeddah Airport from Karachi.