ISLAMABAD: Around 15 designated Pakistani banks have started receiving applications for the upcoming annual Hajj pilgrimage, Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Ministry said on Monday, with the process set to continue till Dec. 3.
Pakistan’s religious affairs minister last week announced the country’s Hajj 2025 policy, according to which pilgrims can pay fees for the annual Islamic pilgrimage in installments for the first time.
The first installment of Hajj dues, amounting to Rs200,000 ($717), must be deposited along with the Hajj application under the government scheme, while the second installment of Rs400,000 ($1,435) must be deposited within ten days of the balloting. The remaining amount must be deposited by February 10 next year.
“Fifteen designated banks in the country have started receiving Hajj applications from today, Nov. 18, and the process will continue till Dec.3,” Muhammad Umer Butt, a spokesperson of the religion ministry, told Arab News.
Next year’s Hajj under the government scheme is expected to range between Rs1,075,000 ($3,858) to Rs1,175,000 ($4,217), while an additional cost for the sacrifice will be Rs55,000 ($197.43).
“This year, the government’s Hajj scheme has been allocated a quota of 89,605 seats, with 5,000 reserved for the sponsorship scheme for overseas Pakistanis while the remaining seats will be allocated to the private Hajj scheme,” Butt confirmed.
The Hajj sponsorship scheme was introduced by the government last year, allowing overseas Pakistanis to apply for Hajj or sponsor someone in Pakistan for the journey by paying in US dollars. In return, the applicants would not have to participate in the balloting process for the pilgrimage.
Butt said the total amount for the sponsorship scheme’s basic package is $4,225, adding that if a pilgrim opts for a sacrificial animal, an additional $200 will be charged. The spokesperson said the performance of hundreds of bank branches will be directly monitored by the religion ministry’s dashboard to ensure convenience for intending pilgrims.
“Women pilgrims will be able to depart without Muharram with a reliable group with the permission of their guardian,” he said. “People with serious or complicated illnesses will not be allowed to perform Hajj and advanced-stage pregnant women, as well as children under 12 years of age, will also not be permitted to travel for Hajj.”
He said the government’s Hajj package includes airfare, accommodation, food, training, transportation and vaccinations for pilgrims, adding that applicants will be guided regarding the Hajj process through the Hajj helpline, website, mobile app and government’s official social media accounts.
Saudi Arabia has allotted Pakistan a total quota of 179,210 pilgrims for the upcoming Hajj. While announcing the Hajj 2025 policy last week, Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain said preference would be given to those going for the pilgrimage for the first time while under the new policy.
“The traditional long package for the official Hajj scheme will cover 38 to 42 days and the short package will cover 20 to 25 days,” Hussain had said.
Under the new Hajj policy, the government’s quota will be allocated through computerized balloting, with 1,000 seats reserved for hardship cases and 300 for laborers or low-income employees registered with the Workers Welfare Fund or the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution.
Pakistani banks start receiving Hajj 2025 applications
https://arab.news/pnz92
Pakistani banks start receiving Hajj 2025 applications
- Process to receive Hajj applications to continue till Dec. 3, says religion ministry
- Pakistani pilgrims can pay fees in installments, as per the country’s new Hajj policy
‘Look ahead or look up?’: Pakistan’s police face new challenge as militants take to drone warfare
- Officials say militants are using weapons and equipment left behind after allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan
- Police in northwest Pakistan say electronic jammers have helped repel more than 300 drone attacks since mid-2025
BANNU, Pakistan: On a quiet morning last July, Constable Hazrat Ali had just finished his prayers at the Miryan police station in Pakistan’s volatile northwest when the shouting began.
His colleagues in Bannu district spotted a small speck in the sky. Before Ali could take cover, an explosion tore through the compound behind him. It was not a mortar or a suicide vest, but an improvised explosive dropped from a drone.
“Now should we look ahead or look up [to sky]?” said Ali, who was wounded again in a second drone strike during an operation against militants last month. He still carries shrapnel scars on his back, hand and foot, physical reminders of how the battlefield has shifted upward.
For police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the fight against militancy has become a three-dimensional conflict. Pakistani officials say armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly deploying commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons they say were acquired after the US military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Security analysts say the trend mirrors a wider global pattern, where low-cost, commercially available drones are being repurposed by non-state actors from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, challenging traditional policing and counterinsurgency tactics.
The escalation comes as militant violence has surged across Pakistan. Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) reported a 73 percent rise in combat-related deaths in 2025, with fatalities climbing to 3,387 from 1,950 a year earlier. Militants have increasingly shifted operations from northern tribal belts to southern KP districts such as Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Bannu is an important town of southern KP, and we are feeling the heat,” said Sajjad Khan, the region’s police chief. “There has been an enormous increase in the number of incidents of terrorism… It is a mix of local militants and Afghan militants.”
In 2025 alone, Bannu police recorded 134 attacks on stations, checkpoints and personnel. At least 27 police officers were killed, while authorities say 53 militants died in the clashes. Many assaults involved coordinated, multi-pronged attacks using heavy weapons.
Drones have also added a new layer of danger. What began as reconnaissance tools have been weaponized with improvised devices that rely on gravity rather than guidance systems.
“Earlier, they used to drop [explosives] in bottles. After that, they started cutting pipes for this purpose,” said Jamshed Khan, head of the regional bomb disposal unit. “Now we have encountered a new type: a pistol hand grenade.”
When dropped from above, he explained, a metal pin ignites the charge on impact.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Raza Khan, who narrowly survived a drone strike during construction at a checkpoint, described devices packed with nails, bullets and metal fragments.
“They attach a shuttlecock-like piece on top. When they drop it from a height, its direction remains straight toward the ground,” he said.
TARGETING CIVILIANS
Officials say militants’ rapid adoption of drone technology has been fueled by access to equipment on informal markets, while police procurement remains slower.
“It is easy for militants to get such things,” Sajjad Khan said. “And for us, I mean, we have to go through certain process and procedures as per rules.”
That imbalance began to shift in mid-2025, when authorities deployed electronic anti-drone systems in the region. Before that, officers relied on snipers or improvised nets strung over police compounds.
“Initially, when we did not have that anti-drone system, their strikes were effective,” the police chief said, adding that more than 300 attempted drone attacks have since been repelled or electronically disrupted. “That was a decisive moment.”
Police say militants have also targeted civilians, killing nine people in drone attacks this year, often in communities accused of cooperating with authorities. Several police stations suffered structural damage.
Bannu’s location as a gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a security flashpoint since colonial times. But officials say the aerial dimension of the conflict has placed unprecedented strain on local forces.
For constables like Hazrat Ali, new technology offers some protection, but resolve remains central.
“Nowadays, they have ammunition and all kinds of the most modern weapons. They also have large drones,” he said. “When we fight them, we fight with our courage and determination.”
