ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, has praised the Kingdom’s arrangements and hospitality during Hajj 2019.

“We are thankful to King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi ministries of Interior, Hajj and also governor Makkah for best arrangements for Hajj this year,” Qadri said in statement.

Qadri was also present in Makkah along with other senior officials during Hajj to oversee the arrangements for pilgrims.

Around 200,000 Pakistanis performed Hajj this year who will return home as post-Hajj flight operation commence from August 17 from Jeddah to continue till September 15, according to religious affairs ministry. 

Saudi Arabia extended its flagship “Road to Makkah” project to Pakistan this year providing pre-departure immigration facilities to more than 30,000 pilgrims at Islamabad International Airport. 

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had announced the pilot program for Islamabad, upon the request of Prime Minister Imran Khan, during his historic visit to Islamabad in February 2019.

Road to Makkah is aimed to facilitate Hajj pilgrims and make for a smoother departure and arrival process, with quicker clearance facilities which save up to ten hours of waiting time after arrival in Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom further deployed hundreds of youths with multilingual skills to assist people from various parts of the world at its airports in Makkah and Madinah this year. It also used mobile applications that could be operated by those performing Hajj in their own language.

Saudi Arabia’s Hajj and Umrah Ministry launched a Twitter service to answer pilgrims’ basic questions in Urdu, along with 12 other languages. The service began with hundreds of tweets accompanied by the Arabic hashtag #Your_Hajj_in_your_Own_Language.

The Kingdom also launched the Arafat Sermon app, which offered live translation of the Hajj sermon in different languages, including Urdu.

The Hajj authorities also introduced two interactive apps that could be easily operated by speakers of Urdu language to help pilgrims, with a range of services on smart devices including help in finding emergency service centers, holy sites, currency exchanges, restaurants and accommodation. 

Pakistani nationals usually constitute the third largest group, after Saudis and Indonesians, to perform Hajj.