Senate body reveals new Haj corruption scam

Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs Chairman Hafiz Hamdullah on Wednesday revealed that corruption of millions of rupees had been carried out in the current year’s Haj operation.
The committee summoned the religious affairs secretary, the PIA MD, the civil aviation authority DG, and the PIA GM haj operations in the next meeting.
The chairman said four officials of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, namely Ali Ghulam Lashari, Razay Shah, Kamran Butt and Manzoor Manadi, were involved in corruption of millions of rupees while renting buildings and making arrangement for other affiliated operations for Pakistani pilgrims.
“Building which should have cost a maximum 1000 Saudi riyals per pilgrim has been rented at a rate of 3000 Saudi riyals. Pakistani pilgrims will also have to pay more than double the regular fare of transportation,” he said.
He said a Canadian citizen, Salman Arain, had been given the contract of providing helpers to pilgrims. “He has been charging 120 Saudi riyals per helper per day from the ministry while he would pay only 80 Saudi riyals to each helper per day.”
Hamdullah said Pakistani pilgrims would be paying 3000 Saudi riyals for a building in Azizia while private haj operators would only be paying 1000 Saudi riyals per pilgrim for the same building.
“While in Jhara-ul-Haj, where the rates are 800 Saudi riyals, Pakistani pilgrims would be paying 2500 riyals,” he said.
The chairman of the committee revealed that Pakistan house’s building in Makkah was also illegal as Pakistani authorities had not obtained permissions from the Saudi authorities to set up that house.
Ministry of Religious Affairs Joint Secretary Hafiz Sher Ali said, “We will investigate the issue and would submit a report in the next meeting,” adding that this year the Pakistan Army had denied sending its personnel as ‘khadimul hajaj’ (helpers) because they were busy in the war against terrorism.
He also told the committee that in the current year 2,027 new private operators had been registered with the ministry but none of them had been given the quota in haj operations.
“Responsibility for hiring buildings in Makkah for the pilgrims is with a committee headed by Jeddah haj DG. That committee is the best platform to get a response on corruption charges on renting buildings,” he said.