Ministry yet to decide on hardship quota applications

Government Haj Scheme

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has received over 13,000 applications against the hardship quota in Government Haj Scheme but it has yet to decide on it.

According to official sources, it is difficult to accommodate all the applicants due to availability of only 1,400 seats of hardship quota.

The ministry was contemplating to select successful applicants through balloting.

The hardship quota has been reserved for broken families, newly born infants whose parents are going for Haj and intend to carry their children with them. Hardship quota is allocated on equitable basis to applicants belonging to far-flung areas. The employees of corporate entities, public sector organisations. labour, low paid employees are also adjusted in hardship cases. The ministry has already decreased the hardship cases quota from five to three percent in the Haj Policy 2016 aiming to accommodate the maximum pilgrims in the balloting. As many as 143,368 people will perform Haj this year, including 71,684 through the Government Scheme. This year over 175,000 persons were deprived from performing Haj in Government Scheme due to availability of limited number of seats for intending pilgrims.