ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has decided to retain the Hajj sponsorship scheme for next year’s pilgrimage, an official of Pakistan’s religion ministry said on Monday, despite the initiative attracting a low number of applications this year.
The ‘Sponsorship Scheme Hajj’ was introduced by the government this 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.
The government’s Hajj sponsorship scheme could only attract 7,000 applications against a total quota of 44,000 this year. The numbers were a setback for Pakistan as the South Asian country hoped to generate $194 million from the scheme out of the total $284 million required for its 2023 Hajj Operation.
Ata-ur-Rehman, additional secretary of the Religious Affairs Ministry, briefed media representatives about the decisions taken during the cabinet’s meeting on Monday.
“He said under the proposed Hajj policy, the sponsorship Hajj will remain intact,” the state-run Radio Pakistan said.
Rehman said around 25,000 people will perform Hajj on the sponsorship scheme under the government quota while 44,000 people will be accommodated from the private Hajj scheme.
The scheme is also an important one for Pakistan as the cash-strapped nation is grappling with an economic crisis that has plummeted its foreign exchange reserves and caused its national currency to depreciate significantly against the US dollar.
This year, Saudi Arabia restored Pakistan’s pre-coronavirus Hajj ratio of 179,210 pilgrims and also lifted the upper age limit of 65 years to perform the pilgrimage. More than 81,000 Pakistani pilgrims performed Hajj under the government scheme this year while the rest used private tour operators.
