ISLAMABAD: The Senate was informed on Friday that the government is taking all practical steps to ensure utmost transparency in Hajj balloting for the current year.
Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Sardar Muhammad Yousuf told the House during questions hour that Hajj pilgrims were selected through computerised balloting because a large number of Hajj applications have been received by the religious affairs ministry under the government scheme.
He said that about 3,75,000 Hajj applications have been received against Pakistan’s quota of 1,20,000. He said that a quota of 10,000 had been reserved for applicants who remained unsuccessful in their attempts to go for Hajj pilgrimage, even though they tried a few times.
The minister said that a quota of 10,000 had also been reserved for people falling in the age bracket of 80 years and above. To another question, the religious affairs minister said that only those banks were allowed to receive Hajj applications which operated Sharia accounts.
Besides, the Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani informed the House that PC-1 for the construction of an additional block of the Federal Lodges No-1 in Quetta had been submitted, while the Federal Lodges have been renovated at a cost of Rs 5.5 million.
To another question, he said the government was pursuing a policy of constructing mosques without favouring any particular sect of Islam.
The Senate on Friday also passed “The Regulation of Generation Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Bill, 2017”.
The bill allows amendments in the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997. The Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari moved the bill in the House.
