Karachi: Delay in balloting of Hajj applications has disappointed the aspirant Hajiis and the government should take proper measures to redress the grievances of Hajj applicants who have already deposited the required fees in commercial banks, said Pasban e Pakistan Altaf Shakoor here Wednesday.
In a statement here, he said as per estimates Hajj aspirants have deposited fee of more than Rs100billion in the commercial banks and the banks are earning estimated Rs10mn interest per day on these deposited amount. He regretted that to unclear policy of the government regarding the Hajj quota, the balloting of the Hajj application has already been postponed causing disappointment for the applicants and their families.
He said after unearthing of scams during the tenure of previous rulers in Hajj quota and charges, it was being expected that the present government would learn from the past mistakes, but sadly this is not the case. He said the citizens have already been decrying about a particular mafia that loot the Hajjis in the name of their so-called private packages.
He said the Pasban is against the private quota policy and it has been demanding to allow one category of government quota for all Hajj aspirants to end exploitation of the Hajiis in the name of private packages. He appealed to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take a suo moto notice of this issue so that hundreds of thousands of aspirant Hajjis could be saved from mental agony.
