ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said the government had arranged a special flight for parliamentarians to go to Saudi Arabia for Hajj on Sunday morning, adding that the arrangement was made after entering an agreement with the Saudi authorities. 

This year, Saudi Arabia reinstated Pakistan’s pre-pandemic Hajj quota of 179,210 pilgrims and scrapped the upper age limit of 65 in January. About 80,000 Pakistani pilgrims are expected to perform the pilgrimage under the government scheme this year, and the rest have been facilitated by private tour operators.

Pakistan launched a special flight operation for pilgrims on May 22. The first group of flights was directed to Madinah, where people performing Hajj under the government scheme spent approximately eight days before traveling onwards to Makkah. Flights to Jeddah started in the first week of June. Meanwhile, the last Hajj flight departed from Pakistan on June 20.

“Some of our fellow [parliamentarians] want to go for Hajj, therefore, we have arranged a special last flight for them tomorrow (Sunday) under the protocol and in agreement with the Saudi authorities, as they were not allowing Hajj flights in between June 22- 23,” Dar said during his speech in parliament.

“Therefore, our parliamentarian brothers and sisters can avail this [opportunity], and since pilgrims already in Saudi Arabia are moving towards Mina for the Day of Arafat, these [parliamentarians] would very easily join them to perform the Hajj.”

He added that the flight would depart from Pakistan early in the morning on Sunday, therefore, all parliamentarians who intend to perform the religious ritual can go to the kingdom via the flight.

“Once they are in [Makkah], I ask them to pray for the country to be able to steer itself out of the problems it has been facing for the last few years and move toward betterment.”