February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: The Saudi embassy has refused Haj visas to some 4,500 pilgrims out of a total of 18,864 applicants under open Haj scheme for lack of proper residential certificates, in most cases fictitious documents, high officials revealed here on Monday.

Around 120,000 Pakistani Haj pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia while the total number of pilgrims from Pakistan was expected to be 135,000, which was a record in the national history, spokesman of ministry of Haj said.

The ministry of religious affairs remained under tremendous political pressure especially from the MNAs as the PM House summoned its high officials asking them to complete the impending cases of Haj visas. The ministry also remained in touch with the Saudi authorities through various channels but without any tangible result.

Under the original scheme, the ministry had planned for sending 15,000 pilgrims on provision of residential certificates endorsed by the Saudi authorities. The number however rose to around 20,000 and Prime Minister Jamali under political pressure ordered accommodating all the applicants before his embarking upon a five-day tour to Gulf.

“Not only that the tour operators made a hay from the innocent pilgrims charging millions from them in advance, but some hotels in Saudi Arabia issued fake residential certificates to intending pilgrims, the spokesperson told Dawn .

A large number of applicants coming from various parts of the country continued to throng the ministry for the last several days, holding demonstrations, clashing with security personnel deployed to save the ministry officials from their wrath who were locking themselves inside the building.