ISLAMABAD: Zia-ur-Rehman, the director of the Pakistan Hajj Mission in Madinah, has said the government was offering its citizens the ‘most cost-effective’ Hajj package among regional countries through its official scheme, state media reported on Thursday.
Pakistan has a Hajj quota of 179,210 pilgrims this year, of which 63,805 people will perform the pilgrimage under the government scheme while the rest will use private tour operators. This year’s Hajj is expected to run from June 14-19.
“This [Pakistan] package is priced at 14,300 Saudi Riyals, which includes meals, whereas comparatively neighboring India’s package costs 15,000 Saudi Riyals without meals,” Rehman said in an interview with the APP news agency.
“This price difference highlights the efforts of the Pakistani government to make the Hajj pilgrimage more accessible and affordable for its citizens. The package duration is 40 days, and there is a minimum expense of 1,400 Riyals per pilgrim.”
Rehman said the Pakistan Hajj Mission had made “elaborate food arrangements” for intending pilgrims who would perform Hajj under the government scheme and were currently staying in Madinah.
Seven top catering companies operating in Madinah had been selected to provide three meals a day to the guests after a competitive bidding process which 29 companies took part in.
“The hiring process, initiated in November last year following approval from the federal cabinet, was completed in due course of time, ensuring quality food and hygiene standards at a rate of 35 Saudi Riyal per person,” Rehman said.
“Designated officials have been deployed in the kitchens of the catering companies to closely monitor the entire process, from storing meals to transporting food in refrigerated units for distribution to pilgrims at their residences, under close scrutiny.”
Pakistan’s religion ministry has confirmed that over 15,000 pilgrims from the country had already arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage since a Hajj flight operation started on May 9. The government has also set up two control rooms, one each in Makkah and Madinah, to facilitate pilgrims.
Pakistan says offering ‘most cost-effective’ Hajj package in region
https://arab.news/rzwcz
Pakistan says offering ‘most cost-effective’ Hajj package in region
- Pakistan has a Hajj quota of 179,210 pilgrims this year
- 63,805 people to undertake pilgrimage on government scheme
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
