ISLAMABAD: Preparations to make Saudi Arabia’s ‘Road to Makkah’ project a success are underway and in its final stages at major airports, officials at Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs told Arab News on Wednesday.
“Hajj flights from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia will be operational from July 4,” Imran Siddique, MRA spokesman said, adding that the officials are in talks with the Saudi government “through the foreign office to finalize all matters.”
He added that the MRA is doing everything in its capacity to facilitate Hajj pilgrims from Pakistan.
On Monday, Pakistan’s Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that the government was intent on making the project – which
is aimed at facilitating Hajj pilgrims from across the Muslim world – a success.
During Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s visit to Pakistan in February this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan had requested Saudi Arabia to include Pakistan in the project, following which Saudi authorities had said that all pilgrims traveling from Pakistan would be able to clear immigration at local airports in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.
“The aviation division has inculcated five major airports in the country to store Zamzam water for Hajj pilgrims this year,” Khan said, adding that the initiative was “as per the instructions of the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the Islamabad International Airport.”
Khan added that ample space had been allocated at several airports for the storage of Zamzam holy water which would be brought from Saudi Arabia and distributed among pilgrims on their return from Hajj this year.
“These airports include Islamabad, Quetta, Faislabad, Sukkar and Rahim Yar Khan,” he said.
In April this year, a Saudi delegation comprising officials from the Kingdom’s immigration and passport departments visited Pakistan to evaluate facilities for pilgrims at the major airports.
As part of the Road to Makkah initiative, the Hajj quota for Pakistani pilgrims has been increased from 184,210 to 200,000 this year. This year Saudi Arabia has also agreed, in principle, to provide e-visas to Pakistanis performing Hajj.
Pakistan to start Hajj flights from July 4 – official spokesman
Pakistan to start Hajj flights from July 4 – official spokesman
- Ministry of Religious Affairs says measures in place to make project a success
- Move part of Saudi’s ambitious initiative to facilitate pilgrims from all over the world
Pakistan, seven Muslim nations back Palestinian technocratic body, stress Gaza-West Bank unity
- The National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip was announced on January 14
- Muslim nations call for consolidation of the ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven other Muslim-majority countries on Thursday welcomed the formation of a temporary Palestinian technocratic body to administer Gaza, stressing that it must manage daily civilian affairs while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank amid the ongoing peace efforts.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates said the newly announced National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip would play a central role during the second phase of a broader peace plan aimed at ending the war and paving the way for Palestinian self-governance.
“The Ministers emphasize the importance of the National Committee commencing its duties in managing the day-to-day affairs of the people of Gaza, while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ensuring the unity of Gaza, and rejecting any attempts to divide it,” the statement said.
The committee, announced on Jan. 14, is a temporary transitional body established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 and is to operate in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, the ministers said.
The statement said the move forms part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, which the ministers said they supported, praising Trump’s efforts to end the war, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces and prevent the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The top leaders of all eight Muslim countries attended a meeting with Trump in New York last September, shortly before he unveiled the Gaza peace plan.
The ministers also called for the consolidation of the ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza, early recovery and reconstruction and the eventual return of the Palestinian Authority to administer the territory, leading to a just and sustainable peace based on UN resolutions and a two-state solution on pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
