Pakistan opens registration for Hajj 2022

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government on Friday announced that people willing to perform Hajj this year could submit their applications online from May 1 to 13, with a token money of Rs50,000 ($270). 
After a hiatus of two years due to COVID-19 pandemic, Saudi Arabia this year announced holding the annual Hajj pilgrimage for all Muslims across the globe. 
In 2020 and 2021, the kingdom held Hajj only for locals in the wake of the pandemic. 
“This is good news for all of us that Saudi Arabia has allowed Hajj for all the Muslims across the world,” Religious Affairs Minister Mufti Abdul Shakoor said at a news conference in Islamabad. 
The minister said Hajj applicants could submit their applications online and deposit Rs50,000 token money in designated banks. Those who wanted to submit their applications in banks could visit the designated branches in the same period, he added. 
The submission of the applications would be conditional as the Saudi government has yet to convey Pakistan about the exact expenditure for Hajj. 
The minister said the per person cost may range from Rs700,000 ($3,770) to Rs1,000,000 ($5,386), owing to the increase in taxes and cost of other facilities in the kingdom. “We are discussing different proposals with the Saudi government, but we should be ready for this cost,” he said. 
Shakoor said Pakistan had yet to receive a final Hajj cost estimation from Saudi Arabia and the South Asian country’s Hajj Directorate-General in Jeddah was continuously in touch with relevant Saudi departments. 
The Saudi government has slashed the Hajj quota for all Muslim countries to 45 percent and distributed this one-million share among all the nations. 
The minister said Pakistan will be sending 81,132 pilgrims for this year’s Hajj, according to the revised quota. 
The government would distribute 60 percent of its allocated quota to private Hajj operators and 40 percent to itself, with 65 years as the maximum age limit for pilgrims. 
As per the policy, pilgrims would be required to be fully vaccinated with a booster dose and have to undergo a PCR test at least 72 hours before the departure to make sure they were coronavirus-negative. 
Health certificates, valid identity cards and machine-readable passports with at least six-month validity would be mandatory for pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia. 
“Besides these conditions, we will be conveying a final cost estimation and all other mandatory requirements to all potential pilgrims as soon as we get them from the Saudi government,” Shakoor added.