ISLAMABAD, July 19: As many as 1,30,000 persons, including 10,000 under Open Haj Scheme, will proceed on pilgrimage this year.

According to the new Haj policy approved by the federal cabinet here on Saturday, Haj expenses for each intending pilgrim are expected to come down by about Rs5,100 in view of the rupee’s strengthening versus the US dollar — from Rs62 to a dollar last year to Rs58 to a dollar at present.

Haj applications under regular/sponsorship scheme will be received from Aug 1 to Aug 15 while those under Open Haj Scheme, from Sept 1 to Oct 15.

The Hujjaj who would arrange their own accommodation in Saudi Arabia will be required to deposit Rs35,000 less than those who will use the officially-arranged lodgings.

With the reduction of Haj expenses every intending Haj pilgrim departing from Quetta and Karachi will pay Rs94,612 and those taking other gateways will pay Rs98,902 each.

The total number of Haj pilgrims has been slashed by ten thousand as against last year’s 140,000, of whom 131,000 had performed Haj while some 6,000 others had been left out as visas were refused to them after the ministry of Haj failed to process their passports within the stipulated time.

The cabinet, which met with Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the chair, decided that, as against the past practice of depositing expenses only in US dollars, the intending pilgrims under sponsorship scheme will also be allowed to deposit their expenses in Pakistani rupee for direct conversion in Saudi rial.

Under the new policy, all the intending pilgrims will be allowed to travel to the Holy lands with special Haj passports issued by the ministry of Haj who will be in possession of Nadra’s computerized national identity card.

The PM directed Nadra to make sure that all the intending pilgrims, who applied for the computerized national identity card, were provided their cards well in advance so that they could present them to the authorities before leaving the country.

Besides, the cabinet decided to reduce Haj services charges to Rs200 from Rs500 per applicant.

The cabinet was informed that the Hujjaj’s accommodation could be a little distance away in Makkah and Madinah due to the construction work going on in these two cities.

The prime minister will send a team comprising either cabinet ministers or members of parliament to visit the sites of new accommodations before the start of Haj season to determine whether or not the houses were located within reasonable distance.

Responding to newsmen’s questions, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the cabinet also discussed the embarrassing situation that was created by the ministry’s officials last year.