The federal cabinet, meeting in Islamabad with Prime Minister Gilani in the chair on Wednesday, approved the Haj Policy and Plan 2012. While there has been an addition to the categories of accommodation, the price of the official Hajj has been raised by Rs 100,000. In a post-meeting briefing, Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Shah, along with Information Minister Qamaruz Zaman Kaira, announced that the Haj quota would be 179,210 people, to be divided equally between the private and public sectors, but that no one who had performed the Haj in the last five years would be allowed again. He added that applications would be received for the official scheme until May 10, on a first-come first-served basis.
It must not be forgotten that the previous minister, Maulana Hamid Saeed Kazmi, lost his job because of substandard accommodation for Haj pilgrims. Syed Khurshid Shah should there have been more sensitive to the cost of the Haj, which is a religious obligation, not a voluntary activity. For most intending pilgrims, it is the biggest expense of their lives, and will have been something they have saved up for years. Haj is not some pass-through expense; it is an order of the Almighty, and is considered so weighty that it is ordered once in a lifetime. People are thus, almost involuntarily, concerned with how their money is spent. After all, it may represent a lifetime’s labour. At the same time, the government as a whole, and not just the Minister, may wish to consider whether it wishes to be known as the government that pushed the Haj expense past Rs 100,000, in an election year. It should also remember that those undertaking the pilgrimage will have returned in time to cast their votes in the elections, and it should look forward to making this Haj memorable only in the religious sense, and not for any flaws that were present in the past.
The increase in accommodation categories may well have been carried out because the main problem at the time of the Haj scam was in accommodation, but Haj officials should remember that the scam was only made possible by their predecessors’ abdication of their responsibility to ensure that private tour operators fulfilled their responsibilities. With private operators given half the quota, this supervision is essential to the success of the operation. Syed Khurshid Shah took up the portfolio under difficult circumstances. A smooth Haj operation will show how careful his stewardship has been.