LAHORE, Dec 14: All is set to begin Haj flights from Lahore for Jeddah from Thursday (tomorrow) that will carry around 35,000 pilgrims up to Jan 15 without any interval.
The first flight carrying 433 pilgrims is scheduled to leave for Jeddah at 8pm. Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi and federal Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq will see them off at the airport.
There will be two to four flights daily. The PIA has made 'elaborate arrangements' at the Lahore terminal reserved for Haj flights. It has set up its camp at the Darul Hujjaj on Nicholson Road for checking in of the pilgrims before boarding special buses for the airport.
The pilgrims are required to reach the camp at least eight hours before the departure of their flights for check in and other preliminaries. The pilgrims include 25,000 under the regular and 10,000 under the private schemes.
Haj flights will also be leaving Faisalabad and Multan to ease load on Lahore. There will be 67 flights from Lahore, 50 from Multan and 30 from Faisalabad. For the first time the private sector has been allowed to participate in transportation, boarding and lodging of pilgrims from Pakistan, replacing the old open scheme.
The private sector will carry about 53,000 and the government 97,000 pilgrims. Thus, in all there will be a massive lift of 150,000 pilgrims by 444 flights, about 5,000 pilgrims by about 14 flights daily from eight airports of the country.
Similar will be the schedule for the return flights that will start immediately after the Haj. The Haj Directorate of the federal government has made arrangements at Lahore to receive the pilgrims at the Darul Hujjaj, their check in, last instructions and sending them to the airport for boarding the flights.
Main banks selected for pilgrims have set up their offices at the Haj camp for currency exchange. It has also made arrangements for the meningitis vaccination of the pilgrims.
It has set up a camp which will remain open round the clock where arrangements have been made for about 600 pilgrims to stay, and those coming from other districts will be provided beds.
Haj director Farogh Aftab said the directorate had made necessary arrangements for the comfort of the pilgrims at Darul Hujjaj. He said the chief minister had promised to allot a 56-kanal piece of land at Tajpura scheme near Moghulpura for the construction of a permanent Haj complex.
The Haj camp had been changing places in the past. The previous place was at the Hazoori Bagh outside the Badshahi mosque. The present place is the premises of a women's college that had been opened at the Majithia Hall, an evacuee property. It has a large hostel that can accommodate pilgrims. Mr Aftab said a permanent Haj complex was necessary for the pilgrims and hoped the government would give priority to the project.
