Case of 67,000 Haj aspirants: JI leader blasts govt over payment delay

PESHAWAR: Jamaat-e-Islami Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Central) president Abdul Wasi has criticised the federal government and its Ministry of Religious Affairs for the negligence due to which the Haj aspirations of more than 67,000 pilgrims have been dashed as they failed to make timely payments to the Saudi authorities.

The intending pilgrims were supposed to offer the major religious obligation through private tour operators, he said in a statement issued here on Friday.He said that despite repeated efforts over the past two months by private tour operators, who approached government offices, political leaders and parliamentarians, the authorities failed to resolve the issue with the Saudi government.

“These pilgrims deposited over 70 billion rupees months ago,” Abdul Wasi said, “but due to the traditional inefficiency of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the payments were not made to Saudi authorities in time.” As a result, the quota allocated to private Pakistani tour operators has been canceled, effectively ending all hopes for over 67,000 pilgrims to perform Hajj this year, he maintained.

The JI leader further said that this failure has not only deprived thousands of the opportunity to perform Haj, but also severely impacted the livelihoods of thousands employed in the Haj and Umrah travel sector.He demanded the government to immediately refund the full amount collected from the affected pilgrims and initiate legal action against those officials and staff responsible for the delay.