ISLAMABAD: The government intends to gradually withdraw from the Haj arrangements and hand over management of the operation to private corporations, maybe as early as 2025, the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs was told Tuesday.
This was revealed by Religious Affairs Secretary Dr. Zulfiqar Haider at a briefing of the Senate committee regarding the government’s upcoming Haj program.
The Religious Affairs Ministry officials and private Haj operators engaged in heated debates about the quota allotted to the tour operators before the committee, which was led by Senator Attaullah Rehman.
In response to the tour operators’ allegation that the government was plotting to hurt their company, Dr. Haider stated that the government plans to hand over full management of the Haj operations to private firms, maybe as early as 2025.
According to the secretary, the ministry had registered 904 enterprises for the Haj operation; however, this number was lowered to 162 after Saudi officials expressed concerns about the high number of participating entities.
But the person asserted, “Saudi Arabia expressed concerns about dealing with such a high number of companies and asked to reduce it further.”
He claimed that Pakistan had received a policy order from Saudi officials requiring each Haj operator to oversee a minimum of 2,000 pilgrims.
According to the population of the country, the Saudi government has allotted 179,000 Haj quotas to Pakistan for 2025. The official informed the meeting that the government has split this number in half, with the other half being covered by private tour operators and the other half by the official program.
According to him, 40–45 operators were chosen from a quota of approximately 90,000 that had been set aside for the private Haj plan.
In order to streamline the Haj operations, Dr. Haider stated that the number of companies has to be reduced in accordance with Saudi directives.
When the committee members asked about the effects of cutting the number of tour providers to roughly 46, the ministry officials responded that several tour operators had filed legal challenges against the decision.
The tour operators were warned by the secretary that their Haj quotas may be canceled if they did not withdraw their court cases.
According to information provided to the committee, there have been about 80 complaints against the private Haj program and 18,000 against the government’s Haj 2024 program.
Dr. Haider warned that Saudi Arabia would completely revoke the private Haj quotas if the legal issue is not resolved in a timely manner.
In order to receive the minimum quota of 2,000 pilgrims, he recommended that the private operators combine.
