Pakistan surrenders Hajj quota to Saudi Arabia

For the primary time in Pakistan’s historical past, Pakistan has surrendered the quota allotted to the nation by Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrims as functions fell wanting the accessible seats.

The non secular affairs ministry has confirmed that the eight thousand authorities scheme quota has been returned. The sources within the ministry knowledgeable that the transfer was aimed to avoid wasting 24 million {dollars} as the federal government must pay this extra quantity for lodging.

The federal authorities had earlier introduced that there could be no balloting for the Hajj candidates because the authorities may see that there could be a scarcity of candidates.

This historic change reveals the drastic impacts of inflation within the nation.

It had been the federal government’s long-standing demand to extend the quota however Pakistan failed to satisfy the allotted quota. This yr, Pakistan was given full share for the pilgrimage after a very long time.

The report stated the federal government additionally thought-about to allocate the unused Hajj quota to the non-public Hajj operators. Nonetheless, due to the concern that non-public operators would possibly purchase {dollars} from open market, it deliberate to give up the unutilised quota.