KARACHI: Delay in balloting of Hajj applications had disappointed Hajj aspirants and the government should take proper measures to redress the grievances of Hajj applicants who had already deposited the required fees in commercial banks, said Pasban-e-Pakistan President Altaf Shakoor on Wednesday.
In a statement, he said that as per the estimates, Hajj aspirants had deposited fee of more than Rs 100 billion in the commercial banks and the banks were earning an estimated Rs 10 million interest per day on the deposited amount. He said that due to the unclear policy of the government regarding the Hajj quota, the balloting of the Hajj application had been postponed causing disappointment to the applicants and their families.
He said that after the unearthing of scams in the government’s Hajj scheme during the tenure of previous rulers, they had expected the present government to learn from the past mistakes, but sadly this was not the case. He said the citizens had already been decrying about a particular mafia that looted the Hajjis in the name of their so-called private packages.
He said that Pasban was against the private quota policy and it had been demanding to allow one category of government quota for all Hajj aspirants to end the exploitation of the Hajjis in the name of private packages. He appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar to take suo moto notice of the issue so that hundreds of thousands of Hajj aspirants could be saved from mental agony.
