Govt reduces Hajj 2024 expenses by Rs100,000

The government has announced a significant cut in the expenses incurred on Hajj by Rs100,000.

Caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs Aneeq Ahmed announced the Hajj Policy 2024, stating to slash the expenses for the holy sojourn by Rs100,000 compared to last year.

Sharing salient features of the new Haj policy 2024 in Islamabad, Caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs Aneeq Ahmed said it’s the first time in the country that the cost of Hajj had been revised downward.

He announced that the scheduled banks can start receiving applications under the regular scheme from November 27 to December 12.

The federal minister added that the Hajj cost under the government scheme had been reduced to Rs1,075,000 for the next Hajj from Rs1,175,000. He also assured that there would be no compromise on the quality of Hajj arrangements despite the reduction in expenses.

The minister said the Hajj quota for Pakistan was 179,210 which would be equally distributed between the government and private Hajj schemes.

The minister added that along with a long-duration Haj package of 38 to 42 days, the government has also decided to introduce a short-duration package of 20 to 25 days.

He said the pilgrims would also get back Rs35,000 each if they chose to stay four instead of eight days in Medina.

He said Hajj 2024 would be digitalised wherein pilgrims would get a mobile application that could be used without the Internet. The app will have many options including the one for lodging complaints.

He added that the pilgrims would be provided with many free-of-cost things including a SIM with 7 GB data, a suitcase having a QR code, Ihram belts for men, Abaya for women and shoe bags.

He said the Hajj applications would be received from the 27th of this month and this process would continue till Jan 12 next month, adding that an advertisement in this regard would soon be published.

The minister said apart from Islamabad airport, Karachi had also been included in the Road to Makkah project.

Caretaker Minister for Religious Affairs said the government had also requested Saudi Arabia to include Lahore in it.