KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution urging the federal government to withdraw the recently-announced increase in charges to perform Haj under the government scheme.
The resolution unanimously passed by the house states: “This House resolves and recommends to the Government of Sindh to approach the Federal Government to take back the recent increase in Haj charges because it will overburden the citizens of the country who intend to perform sacred Haj obligation”.
It was moved in the house by lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan People's Party Nida Khuhro and Sadia Javed. The draft of the resolution was co-signed by a number of lawmakers belonging to both the treasury and opposition benches.
The opposition legislators belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, whose federal government has increased the Haj charges, didn’t oppose the resolution to withdraw the hike in government package for performing the annual Islamic pilgrimage.
In their speeches in the house on the resolution, the PTI legislators had defended the recent decision of the federal government of their political party to withdraw or reduce the government’s subsidy available to the intending pilgrims in the country to reduce the cost of performing Haj.
Speaking on her resolution, PPP MPA Nida Khuhro said the federal government had increased the cost of performing Haj by 63 per cent and the increase was highly unjust and unbearable for the common citizens of the country.
She said that in the previous regime, the Haj charges had been Rs282,000, which were now increased up to Rs456,000. As such, the sudden hike in the cost of government Haj package was highly shocking for a large number of people intending to do pilgrimage this year.
Syed Abdul Rasheed, opposition lawmaker of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, said that the decision to increase in Haj charges didn’t suit at all rulers who had promised to make Pakistan a model country on the pattern of State of Madina.
He said that such a massive hike in the government Haj package would dash the hopes of a large number of citizens intending to perform the pilgrimage as the increased Haj charges were simply beyond their economic reach.
Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said that people had been in the habit of doing savings virtually on a lifetime basis to perform the Haj while the recent massive increase in the government Haj package would simply deprive them of the opportunity to perform this essential holy ritual.
He said the present government had already caused massive inflation in the country by increasing the cost of essential utility services and other commodities, so the increase in Haj charges was like a massive economic blow to concerned citizens.
Sindh Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also appealed to the federal government to immediately restore the subsidy on Haj cost so that a large number of citizens belonging to middle and lower income groups could perform this important ritual, an essential pillar of the Islamic system.
He said that it was highly unfeasible for the present rulers to make the essential ritual of Haj financially more cumbersome and the government should restore the Haj subsidy at the earliest.
PTI legislator Khurrum Sher Zaman said that the previous federal government had given an unprecedented subsidy on the government Haj package in the election year to appease the citizens while it was unbearable for the present government to continue with the same high cost of subsidy.
He said that Islamic teachings had made it binding upon the performance of Haj only on Muslims who could afford the cost of ritual, so in such a situation it was not at all compulsory upon the government to subsidize the Haj cost.
PTI legislator Muhammad Ali Aziz said that performing Haj was a highly sensitive issue for Muslims and the lawmakers in the house should do a complete study on the Haj package charges of the government before speaking on the subject with complete knowledge.
Earlier, the house also unanimously passed the Sindh Local Government (Second Amendment) Bill-2019 to ease out and simplify the administrative procedure for members of the local government councils in the province to tender resignation.
