Aspiring Hajj pilgrims who were unable to complete the Hajj this year will receive a refund of Rs36 billion from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. More than 67,000 Pakistani pilgrims who were meant to travel to Hajj through private tour companies but were unable to do so due to payment delays will receive their money back.
On Friday, the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs subcommittee ordered the ministry to compensate the victims in full. Senator Aon Abbas Buppi, the leader of the subcommittee, declared that the Rs36.43 billion that was held in Saudi Arabia was to be returned by August 15.
Mr. Bappi emphasized that no deductions of any kind, including service fees or currency exchange losses, should be made. Dr. Attaur Rehman, the Religious Affairs Secretary, told the committee that the Saudi government has given Pakistan a quota of 179,210 pilgrims for the Haj in 2025.Private Haj operators were given 90,830 places out of this quota.
Later on, though, the Saudi government changed its rules to only permit operators who had between 500 and 2,000 pilgrims in their group.
According to the official, none of Pakistan’s 903 licensed private travel companies met this criterion.He asserted that the Haj Operators Association of Pakistan (HOAP) was able to secure a stay order from the Sindh High Court against the policy in spite of numerous messages from the ministry.
The timeframe for deposit payments had almost closed by the time the stay was vacated on January 7.
HOAP had moved 50 million riyals to the Pakistani Haj Mission’s account during the legal impasse.The ministry directed the private operators to immediately transfer the remaining monies into a specific Saudi E-Wallet account upon the lifting of the hold.But only 187 million riyals had been deposited by February 14, the Saudi deadline.
Only pilgrims who have paid the full 14,000 riyals by February 14th were permitted to perform the Haj, following Saudi policy.Consequently, when their entire payment was deposited, only 26,986 were still eligible.
According to Director General Haj Abdul Wahab Soomro, Pakistani private operators moved 667 million riyals to Saudi accounts; 489 million of those riyals, or about Rs36.43 billion, were not used and are still in Saudi Arabia.
