Cabinet reviews revised Haj policy tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Haj Policy 2024 will be presented again before the federal cabinet, which is expected to meet on Tuesday (tomorrow).

According to sources, the cabinet had approved the Haj policy in its last meeting, but later revised it due to concerns of Haj organisers.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has accepted two demands of Haj organisers. It has been decided that children below 10 years of age will also be allowed to go for Haj. Senior pilgrims aged 80 years or above will be allowed to be accompanied by an attendant. The cabinet will take the final decision on the two issues.

One of the demands of Haj organisers is that minimum quota should be reduced from 2,000 to 1,000. The Saudi government has asked the number of Pakistani Haj companies should be reduced to 46. In this way, the Haj quota will be 2,000.

Last year, the number of Haj companies was 904 which were given Haj quota.

This year too, the quota of the private scheme will be distributed among all of them, but these companies will have to form a mother company and register with SECP.

The Haj organisers have demanded the number of companies should be increased to 92. The second issue is that the ministry had allocated half of the quota of the private Haj scheme for the sponsorship scheme. The Haj organisers objected to the decision, saying it should be reduced making it equal to the government scheme.

Under the government scheme, the quota of sponsorship scheme is 25,000. This year, the total Haj quota is 179,210. Half of this quota is for government scheme and half for the private scheme.

Sources said Haj applications will be received from November 20. The cabinet had approved the Haj policy but formed a sub-committee. The Tuesday’s meeting will consider the recommendations of the sub-committee and approve the revised Haj policy.