ISLAMABAD - Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has extended the last date for depositing the Haj dues of Government Haj Scheme’s second Haj balloting to June 20.
The date has been extended to facilitate 7,309 successful pilgrims of the second balloting, said official sources in the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.
Earlier the pilgrims were asked to deposit their dues in their respective banks by June 14.
The successful applicants must deposit their dues, passports and other documents in their respective banks by June 20.
In case of any problem, they can approach the Ministry on 051-9208465. Further information could be obtained from www.hajjinfo.org; Haj inquiry numbers 051-9205696, 051-9216980, and Haj helpline number 042-111725425.
It is relevant to mention here that the Saudi Arabian govt had granted additional quota of 15,790 pilgrims.
The additional quota had been distributed by the Ministry as per set formula of 60:40.
The major chunk of the quota of 9,474 had gone to Government Haj Scheme and remaining 6,316 was being distributed among private Haj Group Organisers (HGOs).
He said that a total of 216,542 applications were received this year, out of which 107,526 were declared successful in the first balloting conducted on March 11.
The remaining 108,607 unsuccessful applicants of that time were included in the second balloting, he said, adding, that the total quota was 9,474 out of which 1.5 per cent (142) quota had been reserved to accommodate hardship cases and 2,023 seats were given to the applicants who remained unsuccessful despite applying thrice in last five years.
Balloting on 7,309 seats has been conducted, while as many as 2,165 seats were allotted without balloting.
In total 200,000 Pakistanis would perform Haj this year including 117,000 of the government scheme and 83,000 through the private scheme.
Meanwhile, Haj flights schedule would be issued on Wednesday (June 19).
The detail of Haj flights would be available on Ministry’s website.
The intending pilgrims would be informed about their flight schedule, building, Maktab number and other relevant details through SMS and letters.
According to tentative schedule the month long pre Haj flights would be started from July 4.
He urged intending pilgrims to benefit from Ministry’s ongoing extensive training programmes as such programmes were most important for performing Haj in accordance with the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).
He also urged intending pilgrims to benefit from Haj training material available at Ministry’s website and Ministry’s facebook link.