With an evenly split quota for government and private schemes, the new Haj policy, approved by the federal cabinet, allows 179,210 Pakistani nationals to go on pilgrimage next year but puts a restriction on taking children aged below 12 with them.
Under Haj Policy 2025, a new portfolio of Nazim (administrator) has been introduced to facilitate the pilgrims. One Nazim will be appointed for each 100 pilgrims, who would be selected from among the welfare staff, as 1,000 seats would be allocated for hardship cases and 300 for labourers and low-income employees registered under the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution or Workers Welfare Fund.
The cabinet meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was told that selection under the government scheme would be made through a computerised balloting. The cabinet called for giving preference to those intended pilgrims who could not succeed in the last year’s balloting.
Under the policy, Road-to-Makkah facility will be available for pilgrims at Islamabad and Karachi airports, while a special Haj Management App has been developed to facilitate the pilgrims and arrangements have been made for their training.
The Haj group organisers would sign a service provider agreement with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which would be strictly monitored by the ministry.
